What's Mine is Yours
by EvilMuffinLord
Summary: A post provisional licence exam party leads to an unexpected villain encounter, and a whole lot of confusion for Class 1A. In the midst of learning new abilities, two members find their friendship growing deeper, and changing into something new.
1. Caution Slippery When Acidic

Izuku Midoriya was feeling incredibly awkward. Crowds had never been a place where he felt comfortable. He had also never been dancing before, which led to his currently wishing that he could simply drop through the floor and vanish. That or turn invisible.

He was standing on the dance floor of Mustafu city's most popular youth club and trying his best to not look as awkward as he felt. Around him were several of his classmates from UA including Kirishima, Kaminari, Uraraka, Toru, Tsuyu, and Ashido. The rest of their classmates who had decided to come on the outing were either keeping watch over their belongings or were enjoying themselves elsewhere in the club.

Class 1A had just received their provisional licenses that day, and it had left them all feeling happy but drained. The week leading up to the exam had been incredibly stressful, and that kind of stress didn't simply go away.

When they had made it back to their dorm, Mina had blocked the elevator and had made her proposal. Her favorite club was located just a short train ride away, and she invited everyone to come with her and relieve their stress through "the miraculous power of dance"

Surprisingly, everyone had proved very receptive to the idea. By this point they all understood the value of taking time to rest after exerting themselves, but it was rare they all agreed on a single activity.

In the end the only ones who declined were Bakugou and Todoroki, the latter of whom cited his desire to improve himself before the next attempt at the provisional exam, and the former who said it sounded stupid.

And so Class 1A had made the trip across the city and arrived at the biggest, loudest building that Izuku had ever been to. Even from outside he could feel the music pulsing faintly in his chest.

"You OK Deku?" Uraraka asked, concerned for her friend, who's eyes were the size of dinner plates.

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine."

She quirked an eyebrow at that, and Izuku sighed. "OK, I'm not fine. But I-I do want to go with you guys. I want to...uh… expand my comfort zone I guess?" He shrugged and offered a weak smile.

Uraraka smiled back. Her best friend was way too awkward around people, and it made her happy to see him trying to fix that.

"Well then, let's go!" she said, grabbing his shoulders and steering him bodily into the club.

Izuku swallowed nervously. _What did I just sign up for? _He wondered to himself.

* * *

The inside of the building was somehow even louder than Izuku had thought it would be. He could feel the base thrum in his chest with every beat. For many people it looked like the perfect place to kick back, but for Izuku it looked like hell on earth.

There were a few things working in his favor to quell his anxiety. Firstly, his classmate's familiar presence kept his mind from drifting too far into overdrive. Secondly, Yaoyorozu had managed to secure them a private booth that was suitably insulated from the crowds and noise, citing her 'family connections'. Izuku wasn't sure how she did it, but he was immensely grateful.

He had finally begun to relax when disaster struck.

"I sense a disturbing lack of dancing in here. Let's fix that!" Mina announced. She grabbed Izuku's arm and began to drag him toward the dance floor. He squaked loudly, turning bright red.

"A-A-Ashido wait a-"

"Mina, you can't pull him away like that" Uraraka bounded over to the pair and Mina stopped. When she reached them, Uraraka placed a hand on Izuku's other shoulder. "You've got to grab both arms. That way he can't grab on to anything" She said with her usual radiant smile, which suddenly seemed more demonic than angelic.

_Why have you forsaken me Uraraka?_

* * *

Mina smiled at the picture before her. Izuku was making his best attempt at dancing, which mostly involved him standing in place and waving side to side to the beat of the music. He wasn't the only awkward dancer on the floor, but he was certainly standing out.

The rest of them were faring quite a bit better, though Kaminari kept getting distracted by any girls who passed by, much to the annoyance of Jirou, who lashed him with her earjacks every time.

Now that they were getting into it, Mina decided it was time to really show her stuff. She moved a bit aways from the group to a slightly less packed area and began to really dance. She let herself sink into the music, not paying attention to anyone else. She spun, twisted, bounced and pushed herself. Pretty soon, she had built up a sheen of sweat, but she didn't stop until the pulsing of the song came to an end. She bounced one final time, coming down into a perfect split. She let herself fall out of her dance trance, and was met by a wall of noise.

Around her, everyone was clapping and cheering. Even the DJ had held off playing the next song to let the applause play out. Mina felt a little self conscious. She knew she was a good dancer, but this much attention seemed a little excessive.

Amazing as it had been, Mina's performance couldn't hold the attention of the crowd of teenagers for long. As the next song picked up, she made her way back to her friends, but they were proving much more attentive than the crowd. They were staring at her in slack jawed amazement.

"Holy Shit" Kaminari said

"Language!" Yaoyorozu chastised. "Although, I must admit that was an incredible display Ashido. Well done!"

The others chimed in as well leveling as much praise as they could on their classmate who grinned widely and bowed.

The only one who didn't say anything was Izuku. He had been too busy trying to recover from the performance he had just witnessed. He had been captivated, watching her every move with all the attentive detail he possessed.

_I always knew she was graceful, but that was something else _He thought to himself. _And she's stronger than I thought. Maybe I should think about doing some dancing for exercise and balance. Then I could-_

An elbow to the side interrupted his muttering storm. "Deku you're muttering again." Uraraka chastised him.

"Thanks Uraraka."

"You were staring pretty hard…" She said, eyebrow quirked knowingly

"W-w-w-w-what?! N-no I-I-I was just…"

"Pretty sure I saw some drool too…" The devilish smile was back and Izuku was quickly learning to fear it.

He could only blush at that, no response jumping to his mind.

* * *

After Mina's performance, Hagakure, Asui, and Kaminari all decided they wanted to try their hands at dancing like her, though none managed it.

After watching their flailing about, Izuku managed to lose a little bit of his stiffness and actually began to cut loose. It still wasn't really dancing, but at least he no longer looked like a inflatable tube man.

Leaving her dance students behind Mina made her way casually over to Izuku, trying not to spook the boy. She leaned in close, trying to make herself heard over the music.

"How are you doing Midoriya?"

"OH! I...uhm… I'm doing ok!" He was stuttering a bit from the close proximity, but not nearly as bad as he usually did.

"I MEANT" she said, poking him in the side "Are you having fun?"

"Y-Yeah" He said, a genuine smile spreading on his face. "It's not what I usually do, but it is really fun to do this with you!"

Mina blinked at that

"So…. You enjoy spending time with me, huh?" Her voice was teasing, though a close examination of her face would have seen her pink cheeks beginning to turn a dark lilac.

It took Izuku a second to realize what he had said. "N-No I just meant… I'm glad we're all having fun, not just you. B-But I'm glad you're having fun too! I...uh...I mean-"

Mina laughed at the stuttering boy. She was about to cut in and relieve his suffering when the music changed from an obscure, if catchy tune to the current top of the charts single.

Around them the crowd surged as those on the edges pushed in close and new people joined the dance floor.

Mina and Izuku suddenly found themselves smashed together as people moved around them. Both of their blushes flared to life once more, thankful that the other couldn't see their flaming face at the moment.

The surge passed after a moment, and the two were able to seperate, Izuku practically leaping away. However, both of them found that the blushes in their cheeks were not so easily dismissed, even after they retired from the dance floor and returned to their group's booth.

* * *

The evening lasted several hours, but eventually exhaustion from the exam caught up with them. As they prepared to head back to their dorm, most of the class decided to wait outside in the cool night air, while Shoji grabbed most of the bags with his many arms and Toru and Tsuyu visited the bathroom before heading out.

Despite the cool air, Izuku still felt flushed. He had been getting rather into the dancing towards the end of the evening, but all his awkwardness had come rushing back when the crush of dancing bodies had pushed him up against Mina.

There was something about the pink girl that had caught his attention ever since the sports festival. He had been practically terrified out of his mind the entire time, but he had watched all of his classmates battles intently. They had all been incredible, but there was something about watching her slide around with a careful grace, a grin on her face that had really stuck with him.

He blushed, skin feeling even hotter than before, to the point where he thought he might start venting steam around him. He hoped it wasn't noticeable, but apparently he was more obvious than he thought.

"What are you blushing about Midoriya?" said Kirishima, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "Some girl from the club catch your eye?" He had a mischievous grin on his face.

"W-w-w-w-w-what?! N-no!" He could swear he was just going to melt into the pavement

"Seriously?" Kirishima raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I was just kidding, but you really did, huh? C'mon Midoriya, spill. Who caught your eye?"

At that, most of their male classmates turned their attention to Izuku and crowded around him. People like Mineta or Kaminari trying to pry the details from him while Ida and Tokoyami tried to keep them from overwhelming Izuku

Izuku couldn't do much more than stutter at that as he descended into an incoherent mess. Making it all the worse was the fact that Mina herself chose that moment to come over

"What are you guys talking about?" She said, casting her eyes over the group. Izuku tried not to choke as he swore her eyes lingered on him for a moment longer than everyone else. _Stop being paranoid,_ he silently scolded himself.

"N-nothing Ashido" He managed to squeeze out.

"Midoriya saw a cutie at the club and we're trying to get him to share the details" Kirishima supplied, not helping Izuku's rising panic.

"R-really?" There was something he couldn't identify for a moment in Mina's voice, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. "Now I'm interested too. Why don't you tell us Midoriya?" She slung her arm around his other shoulder and called over to the rest of the girls. "Hey, come help us embarrass Midoriya!"

Pretty soon, everyone was clustered around him, and Izuku found himself the center of everyone's attention.

_Please, someone get me out of this! _He thought to himself

From down the street, shouting could be heard, and the entire class turned toward the noise and dropped into fighting stances. After all the hardships they had endured, they were all half expecting a villian attack at any event they went to.

A man was running up the street, several purses dangling from his arms. His eyes widened as he took in the student's uniforms, obviously recognizing the UA uniforms a few of them were still wearing. Realizing he had no chance of dodging past the future heroes, the man raised his arm and caused a sphere of some kind to appear in his hand. He cocked his arm, and hurled it as hard as he could.

Almost everyone in the class dodged out of the way, not sure what the sphere would do. Kirishima on the other hand ran towards it, pushing past Izuku (and causing him to fall on Mina in the process) he activated his Quirk, skin hardening rapidly, and blocked the sphere before it could hit anyone behind them.

The sphere bust on impact, throwing up a cloud of thick red mist that sparked and hissed around them. Izuku felt dizzy as he breathed a little of the mist, and instantly clamped his mouth shut. If the mist knocked him out, he'd be worse than useless, he'd be a liability.

Thankfully, the mist cleared quickly thanks to the night's breeze and Izuku could once again see the thief, who was hightailing it back the way he had came. Near the front of the group, Ida dropped into a running stance.

"Stop right there criminal!" He shouted, before breaking into a dash. A dash that was at normal human speed. A few steps in, he glanced at the engines in his calves in confusion.

_A neutralizing quirk?_ Izuku thought to himself, as he disentangled himself from Mina, all awkwardness lost below a tide of adrenaline. _If so, then that means…_ He mentally reached inside himself to his center, where the power of One for All lay. He exhaled in relief when he felt a warmth of power there. This criminal may be able to neutralize other Quirks, but One for All was special.

Izuku took a few running steps, then began to channel his power into his legs, preparing to use his Full Cowl ability to catch the perpetrator. Instead of the usual burst of power he felt an oozing sensation, as if it were slowly flowing out. He had just enough time to wonder about the difference before his feet slipped out from underneath him and he crashed face first into the pavement.

* * *

The criminal managed to get away from them, as none of the students could manage to activate their Quirks, and the confusion from this distracted them from chasing after him. Shoji, Tsuyu, and Toru emerged from the club a minute later to find most of their class staring dumbfounded at themselves, with the exception of Izuku, who was attempting to escape a large pool of acid that was bubbling faintly, and Ashido, who was doing her best to help him without touching the acid and apologizing profusely.

"Midoriya I-I didn't… I mean I didn't mean too…I-I can't..."

"It's OK Ashido. I know you didn't- Aaaugh!" Midoriya was doing his best to stay upright, but the acid was proving to be extremely slippery

Tsuyu whipped her tounge out, and pulled Midoriya to safety, though his legs continued to drip acid.

"What happened?!" The three late arrivals asked in unison.

"There was…. a criminal. He threw some sort of sphere at us which seems to have… suppressed our Quirks." Yaoyorozu supplied. She had remained remarkably calm despite the distressing events that had just occurred.

"I...ah… don't think our Quirks are suppressed Yaoyorozu." Midoriya said. Slowly, he raised his palm up in front of him, then pushed a bit of the power inside him into his arm. A small pool of acid formed in his palm, growing quickly and spilling over the edges of his palm. "I think… I think he swapped our Quirks with each other."

Around him, every pair of eyes widened in shock, and everyone glanced at themselves, all wondering the same thing.

_What does this mean?_

* * *

Izuku didn't get very much sleep that night. First, the police had to take statements from everyone involved. According to the policeman who collected Izuku's statement couldn't tell him much, but he did say that the criminal who had assaulted them had been caught. When Izuku had shared his theory that the student's Quirks had been swapped, the policeman paled. He furiously scribbled down the rest of the report, then dashed out of the room.

Not long after, a policewoman brought Izuku into a large conference room where the rest of Class 1A was waiting, including Bakugou and Todoroki to Izuku's surprise. The members who had been involved in the incident were all subdued, and many were still staring at their hands in a mix of shock and worry. Izuku understood their feelings very well.

It had been hours since the incident, but One for All's power still hadn't returned to him. With every second that ticked by he wondered more and more if it ever would come back….

He didn't realized he had devolved into one of his muttering storms until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, senses kicking into overdrive, but relaxed once more when he saw who it was.

Ashido was standing behind him, having apparently just come from her own interview. Her dark eyes were wide, but Izuku could see that there was a faint glaze to them. She still hadn't managed to process everything that had happened tonight.

None of them had.

"Midoriya…. I'm sorry." She said, raw emotion making her voice tremble slightly. "This is all my fault…"

"A-Ashido-san you couldn't have known-"

"I was the one who insisted we all go dancing" She cut in, tears forming in her eyes. "If I hadn't been so pushy...If I had just waited a little bit…..I…. We could have all….." She broke down then, tears flowing freely.

The entire class had turned to look in her direction, and several of them stood up, ready to comfort their distressed friend. Izuku beat them all to the punch.

"Mina." His voice was strong, but not sharp. Even so, his use of her name hit her like a slap to the face. Izuku was unfailingly polite to everyone, even Bakugou. This sudden change in his mannerisms broker her self destructive chain of thought immediately. "No one here blames you for any of this. You're my f-friend, OK? So don't beat yourself up. T-that's my job." He finished with as big a smile as he could muster.

Mina felt relief wash over her. _He's not angry!_ She thought to herself. Throughout the interview, all she could think about was how her classmates were feeling, worrying that they would blame her, him most of all. But now he was standing in front of her, with the goofiest grin she had ever seen trying to make her feel better even though it was obvious he was just as worried as she was.

She felt a throb deep in her chest, but it was the complete opposite as what she had felt earlier. It was powerful and so very warm. Mina threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around him. She felt a surge of heat as Izuku turned redder than a tomato, but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was hold that precious boy as tight as she could.

"If you're going to have a moment, kindly do it where you aren't blocking the door" The deadpan voice from behind them startled the hugging students out of their thoughts. Aizawa stood in the doorway, the ever present bags under his eyes looking no greater than before, despite the late hour. Behind him was detective Naomasa who smiled broadly at them.

Izuku shot backwards, and Mina let the boy go. It left her feeling disappointed, but she didn't want the poor boy to overheat. She had seen how awkward he was with physical contact plenty of times, especially when it came from the opposite sex. She sighed internally, and wiped the traces of tears from her eyes. She'd thank him properly later. For now, Aizawa looked like he had something to say, and she desperately hoped it was good news.

Aizawa stood at the head of the table, and class 1A quickly took their seats. None of them wanted to be on the receiving end of one of his lectures. By all rights, his monotone voice and delivery should have turned any lecture he gave into a snooze fest. Instead, his lectures (both the informative and the berating ones) held their recipients attention whether they liked it or not.

"For those of you with short memories, this is detective Naomasa. As he's been involved heavily with the case involving the villain you encountered, he'll be briefing you on the details" Their teacher said before promptly collapsing into the chair at the front of the table. He reached beneath the desk and pulled out his ever present sleeping bag. Izuku sweatdropped.

_When did he have the time to stash that there?_

Naomasa cleared his throat, swinging the attention of the class to him. "This is Riku Yamato, petty thief and general annoyance for the Mustafu police. He's been in and out of jail for several years, but has never been clever enough to pull off any large scale crimes."

He pulled out a remote and a projector above the class hummed to life, throwing an image of a bank on the wall behind the detective.

"Last week, however, he was implicated in the robbery of the Mustafu city bank. Witnesses gave his description, but the description of his Quirk baffled us. They said that he had managed to remove their Quirks entirely, which is something that he's never been able to do before. He's been a person of interest, but we haven't been able to locate him until tonight. For that, you all have my thanks." He bowed to them slightly.

"Now, for the good news" At that, the atmosphere in the room brightened considerably. "After Yamato encountered you, he attempted to escape but was apprehended by Kamui Woods who was on a routine patrol at the time. Under interrogation, Yamato confessed to the bank robbery and explained how he was able to pull it off."

Naomasa clicked the remote again, and the image behind him changed to a plastic bag filled with purple pills.

"This is a drug called 'Velocity'. It's a variation of the notorious drug 'Trigger', but with much more pronounced side effects. It enhances the power of the user's quirk, but over time causes changes in the way the quirk is used. Yamato confessed that this drug was what enabled him to rob the bank."

"Under normal circumstances, his Quirk created smoke around him that caused disorientation and dizziness. However, under the influence of Velocity, his Quirk gained the effect of trading the Quirks of those caught in the smoke cloud. Thankfully, we have learned that the effects are temporary."

Naomasa could swear that the sigh of relief that erupted from the class actually ruffled his hair slightly. He could understand their relief. To these aspiring young heros, the loss of their Quirk would be devastating.

"Now, I'll turn things over to your teacher, but first," Naomasa said, casting his eyes over the class "Allow me to apologize that you were all caught up in this. The entire Mustafu police force thanks you for your dedication, and we'll all be rooting for you to return to normal as quickly as possible!"

He waved to the class as he left the room and Aizawa took center stage once more, not even bothering to remove his sleeping bag.

"I've spoken to Principal Nedzu about the situation and he agrees that while this situation will not be cause to delay your hero training." At that, the almost all of the students remaining tension dissipated. UA didn't let its students relax without good cause and while this would have been cause for many to take a break, the members of Class 1A were not the type to rest on their laurels.

"In fact, this situation presents a unique opportunity. It's one thing to learn to fight against another Quirk, but something else entirely to learn to fight with a different Quirk. Based on the other victims you'll all have the Quirks for approximately one week. During that time, you'll be training to use and fight with the new Quirks. Don't think this means you get to slack off. I expect each of you to work as hard as you were before." He glared at them all fiercely, but at this point, the class was used to it. Pushing them to their limits was how he showed he cared about them.

* * *

A UA bus had been waiting for them outside the precinct and had spirited them away to campus. It was well into the morning now, and there was very little traffic on the road.

For many students, the ride was spent contemplating what had happened to them, and what the next week would be like. With the exception of Izuku, all of Class 1A had possessed their Quirks since they were children. They were an intrinsic part of who they were, and the idea of having that changed, even temporarily, was shocking.

The silent atmosphere lasted until they made it to the common room. Despite the exhaustion they were all feeling, no one in the class felt like they would be able to sleep. They had sat or draped themselves on various pieces of furniture, and the silence was becoming oppressive.

Then a loud voice broke the stagnant air.

"Sooooooooo, what do you think you got Uraraka?" Mina asked suddenly, startling everyone in the room.

"What?" The brunette responded, the meaning of the question totally passing her by in her addled state.

"We all swapped Quirks right? So who's Quirk do you think you have?" Mina was bouncing slightly as she asked, eager to get an answer. Even though there was a faint edge to her voice, the pink girl had pumped her energy back up to where it usually was. The familiar tone and actions gave the rest of her classmates an anchor. One by one, they pulled themselves out of their funk.

Uraraka frowned. "I-I don't know. How do I tell? I don't feel any different."

Mina hummed thoughtfully. "That's a good point… I don't feel any different either…. WAIT!" She jumped up with the last exclamation, and vaulted over the couch she had been lying across. She jumped over Kirishima, who was lying on the floor in front of the elevator, and grabbed Izuku, who was sitting in a chair by the elevator. She lifted him up with both hands, pulling his face close to hers.

"You were using my Acid before, right? How did you do it?"

Izuku turned bright scarlet at the sudden invasion of his personal space, and only managed to stutter wildly and incoherently in response.

"I think he could use some space, Ashido" Todoroki's calm voice cut in. He knew about Izuku's budding crush on the energetic girl thanks to Uraraka explaining it to him, and while he didn't understand the feelings he felt it was his duty as Izuku's friend to help him out on occasion.

Mina blinked in surprise, but released Izuku. Todoroki had come out of his shell quite a bit since first entering UA, but it was still rare for the boy to get involved in other people's exchanges. When he did, however, he almost always made an excellent point and Mina took his advice.

"Sorry Midoriya" She said, scratching her head sheepishly "I guess I got a little overexcited"

"I-It's OK. I'm fine! B-but I don't know if I can help much. When I tried to use All- uhh when I tried to use my Quirk earlier I didn't do anything different. I was just trying to strengthen my legs to run after him. But it didn't come out right. It felt…. Goopy? I guess. And then you saw the rest."

They were all staring at him again.

"Midoriya, did you just call my Quirk 'goopy'?" Mina asked, eyes wide.

He felt his stomach drop rapidly. "Wait! No that's not what I meant!" I-I was just-"

Mina bust out laughing, and a second later the entire class had joined her. "Pffffft! You should see the look on your face!" She said, barely keeping upright. Izuku could only blush from the embarrassment, and from the lovely sight in front of him.

He shook his head at that thought. _Now is NOT the time for that_!

Mina recovered from her laughing fit, and started to look thoughtful once more. "Hmmmm, so we can't tell who's Quirk we have… OK! Uraraka, who's Quirk would you like to have?"

The brunette turned her head to the side, finger on her chin. "I think…. Yaomomo's! Then I could make all kinds of cool stuff!"

"That does sound fun!" Hagakure cut in, bouncing up and down to indicate excitement. "Now I kinda wish I had been there. Having a tail like Ojiro would be cool too!" Ojiro frowned at her when she said that but didn't comment.

"Yeah! You SHOULD have been there!" Mineta was also glaring at her, though with much more malice in his gaze. "Then everything would have been perfect!" No one missed the lustful look in his eyes.

"Toru, on behalf of everyone here, thank you for not being caught up in this." Mina said, and every girl nodded along with her.

"Well I'm glad I wasn't there. Don't need one of you damn extra's messing up my image." Bakugou said, making his way to the elevator.

"Says the one who failed the test." Jirour muttered, just loud enough for Bakugou to hear

"Piss off"

After that, most of the class decided to follow Bakugou's lead and head to sleep. Toru, Tsuyu, Uraraka, and Kirishima stayed downstairs, quietly discussing something with each other and glaring at anyone who tried to eavesdrop.

Izuku, for his part, flopped onto his bed and stared at his hands. How was he going to explain this to All Might? 'Sorry I lost the incredibly important power that you gave up your career to give to me, I think i'll have it back in a week or so!'

He sighed, letting his hands fall to his side. That was not going to be a fun conversation. Still, it could have been worse. He could have been stuck Quirkless again. At least now he had a Quirk to work with….

He had Ashido's Quirk and Aizawa had said that they would be working to use their new Quirks, which meant that the two of them would have plenty to talk about that. Izuku smiled to himself. He was so awkward around people, and girls especially, that long conversations were very difficult for him. But now he could chat about one of his favorite subjects for an entire day, without seeming too weird.

And it was with Ashido too, which made it even better, not that Izuku would admit that to himself. Instead, he pulled out the notebook he had made that contained his notes on his classmate's Quirk, and began to read.

* * *

Mina had also followed Bakogou's lead, but her mood was decidedly lighter.

She was humming to herself as she got ready and thinking to herself. Despite how things had ended up, Mina was very happy with how the night had gone. She had suggested their outing in order to get everyone to take relax after the stress of the license exam, and on that front she had met with great success. Everyone had had a great time, up until the end.

She had also succeeded with her secret objective for the night. When she had planned the night, she had made sure that Izuku would be in attendance. Since the first day of school she had noticed how awkward and uptight he was around everyone, and had made it her personal mission to change that.

When she had dragged him along with the others onto the dance floor, he had been just as awkward as ever. But by the end he had been moving along with them, a great big smile on his face. It had made Mina smile along with him.

The rest of the evening had ended up being a wash, but at least she could take solace in that.

_Well, maybe not a total wash _She thought to herself, as she stared at her hands. As she slipped into bed, she clenched her fist and grinned as shimmering pink sparkles lit the walls of her room.


	2. Sparkle Sparkle Little Star

Izuku groans as his alarm goes off. He felt like he had just closed his eyes when the recording of All Might's voice wakes him from blissful sleep. He glanced at his clock, slapping groggily at the figure. 8 AM was much later than he usually slept, but it still didn't feel like nearly enough.

He groaned miserably. He was so very tired from the previous day's exertions and from the late night. Every part of him hurt, including his skin, a delightful experience that he was NEVER EVER GOING TO REPEAT.

_Why me? _Between his self destructive power and self sacrificing nature, he had felt more pain in the last several months than most people experienced in their lives. He had always known that becoming a hero would be a struggle. He just didn't realize it would hurt quite so much.

Groaning, he rolled out of bed and made his way to the bathroom to douse his face in cold water. It doesn't help nearly as much as he thought it would. He still feels gritty and achy. But he keeps moving, his determination to not miss another day of hero training keeping him going.

He makes his way down to the common room, planning to fix himself some breakfast. He was not expecting the common room to be nearly as busy as it was. Nor was he expecting the utter chaos that filled the room.

Apparently a few more of his classmates had figured out their quirks and were experimenting with them. Or being horrified by the results.

Jirou was curled up in the corner as what appeared to be a shadowy version of her flew around her head throwing insults at her and anyone who came close. Kirishima stands in the center of the room, pants pulled halfway down to show off the small tail that he has grown overnight. Near the ceiling, Ida is attempting to lecture Kirishima on proper dress code despite the fact that he's floating well above the ground and looks ready to hurl. Aoyama sings loudly in french while a flock of birds fly around him with Koda vainly chasing after them. In a far corner of the room, Yaoyorozu sits staring at a textbook forlornly, hair standing wildly on end.

Asui, Shoji, and Todoroki are trying vainly to keep order, but failing miserably.

_I should probably help them out. At this rate, we're gonna be late for class_ Izuku thought. He started heading toward Yaoyorozu to see if he could cheer her up, but was stopped when something heavy slammed into his back.

"Morning Midoriya!" Mina said, arms wrapping around his neck.

"A-A-A-Ashido! I..uh...good...um...hello...how did you…uh…. Can you let go?"

She laughed at his franticly stuttered greeting, but let him go and skipped back smiling widely.

"Hmmmmm. If you insist. I slept well. How about you?"

"I….uh…..I.."

"Out of the way Deku!" Bakugou's harsh tone cut across the room.

_Oh thank god, I'm saved _Izuku thought

He pushed past them, somehow ready for class already despite having as late of a night as anyone there. He was casually disheveled as always, though his usual glare was enhanced by the bags under his eyes. Not even his notorious tough demeanor made him immune to sleep deprivation.

He turned as he reached the entrance, glare intensifying. "And stop making out in the hallway. I don't want to have to see that shit."

_Oh please no_

Izuku could feel his face burning, especially when some of his classmates turned to stare at him and Mina, worried they were missing out on juicy gossip material.

"Midoriya I must ask that you cease this behaviour at once!" Ida was now bobbing on the ceiling, but his voice was loud as ever. "It is quite unbecoming of-" At that point, he lost his fight against the nausea of his new Quirk.

Izuku took that opportunity to make a quick exit. He felt a bit bad about leaving his friends to clean up the mess, but he wasn't sure he could handle the flood of questions and jokes he knew people like Kaminari and Mineta would have made. They weren't terrible people ( well, Kaminari wasn't at least) but he couldn't take that kind of scrutiny today, particularly with Mina standing right there for it.

He knew she would laugh their comments off, or maybe join in on the jokes herself. He'd seen it before. Whenever there was humor to be had, she was either involved or enjoying it from the sidelines, and she was almost the exact opposite of Izuku when it came to her outgoing nature.

He didn't begrudge her her happiness, he just wished that he could laugh along with her, and not be so hyper aware all the time. He'd always been an anxious person, but it seemed lately his awkwardness and stuttering had become even worse, despite his attempts to broaden his horizons.

He kept these thoughts to himself, not wanting anyone to think less of him. If he had, his friends would have told him that he had been doing much better as of late. It was only one particular person who exacerbated his usual awkwardness.

* * *

Normally, Shota Aizawa would have punished his students for their late arrivals and general exhaustion. Given the circumstances, and the fact that they were coming in to work on a normally free day, he felt that it was only fair to give them a little bit of leeway.

Half an hour after he had told them to meet him in gym Gamma, Shoji finally dragged Kaminari inside, the latter of whom was practically falling over in exhaustion. Slowly, the students of class 1A formed a semi circle around their teachers and did their best to focus on what they were saying.

"Shota, I think your look's catching on!" Yamada stage whispered to Aizawa, who glared back. He normally had a slim tolerance for his old friend's teasing, but today that patience was even thinner than normal.

"I'll keep this brief, so we can get right into working. By the end of today I want all of you to know which Quirk you ended up with, and to be able to activate it at will. Those of you still figuring things out, come with myself and Midnight. The rest of you get to practicing. Those of you who didn't get your Quirks swapped, help keep an eye on the others."

"So, keep doing what we've been doing?" Asui asked, a hint of irony in her voice.

"What, do you want extra credit?"

"That would be nice, kero"

Aizawa rolled his eyes at that before turning and heading toward the far side of the gym, gesturing for people to follow. Kaminari, Koda, Mineta, Sato, and Sero all followed and Bakugou also broke off on their own, intent on polishing their training to a razor edge for the next attempt at the provisional exam.

The rest of them spread out, and started in on learning to use their new Quirks. Mina followed Izuku as he made his way .far from the group. Acid had the potential to be a dangerous Quirk, especially in the hands of someone inexperienced.

"Need any tips Midoriya?" She asked him

"I...uh...I think I've got it actually." He held up a hand, and acid started to flow out of his palm. It pooled on the ground, hissing faintly as it dissolved part of the concrete. It wasn't particularly strong acid, especially when compared to what Mina could produce. "I'm having a bit more trouble figuring out how to stop it. I tried, but it keeps going for a while."

"Oh yeah! I remember that! When I was a kid I was the same way. Mom used to stick me in the bathtub so I wouldn't damage the furniture." Mina chuckled at the memory.

"So, uh, how did you get it to stop?"

"Hmmmm. I don't really remember. I guess practice?"

Izuku sighed. "Guess I'd better get back to it then."

"Do you wanna try sliding? It doesn't need you to turn off the acid. Plus it's super fun!" The pink girl offered, practically bouncing by the end of her question.

"Uh, sure I guess. But shouldn't you be training your new Quirk too?" Izuku asked.

"I'm trying, but I can't really get it to work. I think I got Aoyama's laser, but all I can manage to do is sparkle, see?" She demonstrated, her arm lighting up with pink sparkles that danced across her skin. They faded after a few seconds, as the look of concentration faded from her face.

"Doesn't Aoyama's Quirk come out of his stomach? So that should be true for you too, unless the Quirks are changing now that someone new is using it, or maybe-"

"Midoriya, you're muttering again" Mina said, breaking him out of his thought spiral. "And, I sparkle on my stomach too. Wanna see?" She lifted the hem of her gym shirt just enough to expose a strip of now sparkling pink skin.

Izuku spun immediately, flushing so red that Mina was worried he might burst a blood vessel. "Th-that's OK! I'm fine! I'mgonnagopracticeAcidNowBye!" With that, he ran away as fast as he could, missing his Quirk more at that moment than he had all day.

"Wait up Midori!" Mina called, jogging after him. She hadn't planned on teasing him this hard, but she was having way too much fun to stop now.

* * *

An hour later, Izuku was exhausted. He had been making Acid nearly nonstop, and the skin on his arms and legs was burning. His leg muscles were also exhausted. It had taken more than a few tries to be able to slide around on acid flows, though he didn't have anything resembling Mina's natural grace. It was working his legs in very different ways than he was used to, but he was happy for that. The entire point of training while they had these new Quirks was to expand themselves in different directions than they normally would.

Mina on the other hand, was still struggling to use her Quirk. Aoyama had been brought in to consult, but had proven absolutely useless at directing the pink girl. His instructions just left her more confused than before. Now, she was trying different methods of flexing her stomach muscles, as Asui and Hagakure cheered her on.

Izuku smiled at the sight. It was nice to see Mina giving her all to something. He could tell she tried her best with academics, but her easily distracted nature made it very hard for her. He hoped she figured it out soon though. She deserved to get a reward for how hard she was working.

"Arrrrrrrrgh!" Mina shouted, flopping to the ground in frustration. An entire day, and all she had to show for it was a brief lightshow that couldn't even light up a room.

"Maybe you should try something else for a while, kero" Asui said, placing a comforting hand on Mina's shoulder.

"I don't know what else to try. I've done everything I can think of to get this stupid laser to come out. I even tried on Aoyama's belt. Nothing's working."

"Maybe…" Hagakure mused "Maybe it's not his laser you got? I think Yaomomo's Quirk sparkles when she makes stuff."

"I heard Kaminari say he had Creation earlier" Asui said, shaking her head. "Mineta was trying to convince him to make something to spy on the girl's changing rooms. I think Yaoyorozu shocked that idea out of his head though."

That explained the high pitched scream they had heard earlier, coming from where the rest of the class were training. Izuku shuddered, both at his classmate's intentions and the punishment that had been meted out.

Sighing, Mina hopped back to her feet in one fluid motion. She pulled the at the well of power inside her, her skin sparkling to life. Then, she tried as hard as she could to push it outside of her body, but the power stubbornly refused, sitting warmly in her muscles instead. Her best success had come from being able to shift the power to one part of her body when she concentrated, but it still refused to project.

Izuku watched her face, her eyes squeezed shut and cheeks puffed out as she tried desperately to figure out the secret to her new Quirk. It struck him as oddly appropriate that the energetic, outgoing girl had ended up with such a flashy Quirk. It was her mutations that usually made her stand out, not her Quirk.

_Kind of the opposite of Todorki's Ice or my….lightning…._

In that moment realization slammed into Izuku like a ton of bricks. One for All was still unaccounted for among the class, and if All Might and himself were any indication, it took a different form for every user.

He jumped up from where he was standing, trying to get to Mina before anything happened.

"Mina! Wait a secon-"

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence.

Frustrated by her continued failure to use the new Quirk, Mina kicked at the ground as hard as she could, unknowingly bringing the full might of One for All to bear.

The concrete beneath her shattered, and the wind pressure from the mighty blow blew everyone standing remotely near her against the nearest wall. On the other side of the training room, Todoroki had barely enough time to throw up an ice shield before the blast wave hit, protecting himself as well as the other students behind him.

Izuku managed to recover before anyone else, as he had been at least marginally prepared for the shockwave. He picked himself up from the ground, shaking off flakes of concrete, and ran as fast as he could to where Mina had been standing a moment before. Thankfully, he had slammed into a pillar in his flight and had not been knocked too far away.

Where Mina had been standing there was now a crater carved into the concrete floor. The girl herself was lying several yards away, below one of the cement plateaus that Cementoss had formed for their training. She was turned away from Izuku, lying on her right side and completely still. He rushed over to her side, and what he saw confirmed his fears.

Her right leg was bent at an impossible angle and was shattered horribly. Dark purple blood dripped pooled beneath her, though at least it didn't seem to be a life threatening amount. It looked like she had landed on her left arm with considerable force, snapping her forearm as well.

"Mina….Mina! Can you hear me?"

"I….Midoriya?" She asked, voice heavy and slow, eyes flickering open and shut. "W-What happened?"

"You...uh… there was an accident with your Quirk. You're gonna be alright though. Recovery girl will patch you up right away." Izuku responded, checking her over for any other obvious injuries. He spotted a large bruise on her head, which explained her lack of lucidity.

She shifted slightly, not comprehending the state she was in. When she tried to move her leg, her body finally caught up with its injuries, and the pain finally registered.

It screamed through her body, and she cried out along with it. Her good hand snaked out and latched onto Izuku's, grabbing his hand in a death grip completely involuntarily. Before today she had never broken a bone, so she didn't have any mental framework for enduring the shocking pain that was flooding her system. She also didn't have the cocktail of endorphins and adrenaline already in her system that Izuku had had the first time he experienced One for All's backlash.

Izuku held her hand, barely even feeling the force she was putting into the grip. Out of everyone in the class, he was the most intimately familiar with what she was feeling at the moment. He glanced around, trying to see if anyone had summoned the medical robots yet. He didn't see any.

A loud, sharp crack came from above him, and his head snapped towards the sound immediately. The cliff above them was fracturing, already about to fall. Barely sparing a thought to what he was doing, Izuku slid his arms under Mina and hoisted her up. His actions sent another shock of pain through her as her leg and arm were rudely jostled and she shrieked once more. While the boy may not have his Quirk to enhance his strength, his long months of training had left him faster and stronger than most. He dashed forward, barely getting out of range before the edge of the plateau came crashing down where they had been a moment before.

The pair stared at the large chunk of concrete that had nearly crushed them.

"T-Thanks Midoriya" Mina said, voice thick with pain.

"No problem Mi-Ashido" He replied, eyes still firmly glued to the rock. He pulled them away at the sound of footsteps approaching.

Aizawa was dashing towards them. He slid to a stop in front of the pair, eyes snapping to Mina's injuries. Then he looked away, eyes surveying the damage to the surrounding area and scanning for anyone who shouldn't be there.

"Midoriya, Ashido, what happened?" His voice was sharp and on edge. It was clear that he was preparing for the case of another villain attack on the school.

"It's OK!" Izuku said, trying to calm his teacher's nerves, and his own at the same time. "Ashido was testing her Quirk. She thought she had Aoyama's laser, but she got my Quirk instead." Aizawa's eyes widened at that. He was well acquainted with the destruction One for All caused, both on others and on its user.

"She didn't realize" Izuku continued, trying to get through as much as he could quickly so he could get Mina to the infirmary "So she accidentally used 100% and did that," He gestured to the crater nearby "and hurt herself too. Can you call the medical bots?"

Aizawa shook his head, dropping out of his combat ready stance. "I can, but it might be quicker to take her to Recovery Girl yourself. They're on the other side of the Gym helping some of the other students right now."

Izuku nodded. "I'll get her there quick" He turned, trying not to jostle the injured girl's limbs as he began to jog toward the infirmary.

"Stay and make sure she's alright." Aizawa called "I'll let the others know you're okay." He muttered something after that, but Izuku was too far away to make out what he said, other than it being in a tone that was somehow even more exhausted than Aizawa's usual monotone.

* * *

"Oh you poor girl. What happened?" The elderly woman who everyone knew as Recovery Girl fussed over Mina as Izuku laid her down on one of the beds in the infirmary.

"I had a little training accident" The pink girl responded, voice thick with pain, but managing to push through it on willpower alone.

Recovery Girl raised an eyebrow at that response. "A little accident that completely shattered your leg, and snapped your arm?" She turned to glare at Izuku. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Izuku quailed under her gaze, something Mina took note of even through the haze of pain. She had seen Izuku stare down multiple villains, several of whom could have easily broken him, without flinching. Yet here he was, trembling before a little old lady more than a foot shorter than him. It made for a rather hilarious image, even if she was having trouble keeping her mind on the humor of the situation.

"She….um…..she may have gotten my Quirk and used it full force accidentally." Izuku said, rubbing his neck nervously.

Recovery Girl sighed deeply, then gestured for Izuku to come closer. When he had brought his head down to be level with her, she lashed out with her cane, striking him sharply on the forehead.

"MIDORIYA IZUKU! I swear it's hard enough to deal with your ridiculous self sacrificing behavior without you rubbing off on the other students. You're as bad as Toshinori. If Young Ashido starts visiting me half as often as you have, I will personally introduce you to my large bore needle selection!" With that, she turned to Mina, planting a large, wet kiss on the girl's forehead.

Mine felt her pain recede as her healing ability was boosted far beyond its natural levels. With the sudden absence of pain, she felt suddenly awash with endorphins and at the same time absolutely exhausted. She felt herself practically melt into a puddle of mush on the bed, and quickly drifted off into a deep sleep.

"Is she ok?" Izuku asked, staying well out of range of Recovery Girl's cane, but still hovering around the bed.

"She's fine." Recovery Girl said, easing herself into her desk chair. "Just exhausted. For most people, shattering their own limbs into tiny pieces and having them put back together is not just a regular Sunday activity."

He could only chuckle nervously at that. He'd gotten better these last few months. He hadn't broken any of his bones using his Quirk since the summer training camp.

Recovery Girl glared at him.

"Now, shoo! She needs rest. Come back to pick her up in…" She glanced at the clock "Three hours or so. She should be awake then. She might still need some help getting around though, so don't go tiring yourself out too much with your training." With that, she spun her chair around and started working at some paperwork on her desk.

With a final look at his sleeping friend, Izuku slunk out of the nurse's office and made his way back to the gym to continue training.


	3. Pink and Green and Red All Over

Mina was a drowser. She loved to inhabit that blissful realm between sleep and wakefulness where she could drift in perfect relaxation. In fact, she spent as much time as she could drowsing in the mornings before school. It had made her late more than once, but she felt the trade was well worth it.

Instead of drifting slowly back, she felt herself snap awake. The ceiling above her is white and clean, and medical. Much different than the grey cement ceiling of her room that she keeps meaning to change, but never seems to have time for. Around her, white curtains drift slowly in a faint breeze.

She tries to sit up, and realizes that everything about her hurts. Her training at U.A. had often pushed her beyond her limits, but she never remembers soreness quite like this. Her left arm throbbed sharper than the rest, making her hiss. She realized that someone had put a sling on her while she slept.

With that, her slowly waking brain finally put two and two together and told her where she was.

"What happened?" She asked herself idly. She couldn't quite recall how she got here. She remembered training with her friends, and teasing Midoriya, and then pain.

"You had a training accident." The kind voice of Recovery Girl came from the other side of the curtain. The old woman pulled aside the curtain, and busied herself checking Mina's injuries.

"I did?" The pieces were starting to come back to her. The frustration at not being able to use her new Quirk like everyone else, watching Midoriya get the trick to skating with her Quirk down so easily, lashing out in anger, and then…

She flushed slightly. Her memory might be hazy from the pain, but she definitely remembered a pair of strong arms carrying her through the winding halls of U.A. A part of her latched on to the memory, trying to bring it into sharper focus, but she pulled it back, trying to focus on the task at hand. Now was not the time to be distracted by possible blush inducing acts from her, admittedly adorable, classmate.

That would come later.

"Is everyone O.K.?" She asked.

"For the most part. A few bruises from sudden falls, and some minor scrapes from debris were the largest outside of yourself."

"Yeah… about that. How did I end up like this exactly? My memory is still kinda hazy."

Recovery girl sighed. "From what I understand, you thought you had swapped Quirks with Aoyama, correct?"

Mina nodded.

"It appears you were wrong. You have Young Midoriya's Quirk, with all the self destructive power that comes with it. I trust you at least will have the sense not to overdo things as much as he has. Speaking of which…" She went to the door, and rapped on it several times. A moment later, Izuku stepped in, the worried look on his face dissipating as he saw her awake and sitting up.

"Ashido! I'm glad you're awake!"

She smiled, trying her best to imitate the grin he used to reassure people. She had no doubt he had copied the idea from All Might, given his fanboy status, but if it worked for him, then she figured she could swing it for herself.

"Yep! I'm all patched up!" She raised her arms, trying to give a thumbs up as well, but failed when her left arm protested loudly. "Well, almost.." She finished sheepishly.

"Your body took quite a bit of damage from the swing" Recovery girl said. "My Quirk can repair a lot, but it's best not to overuse it unnecessarily. I'll finish healing you tomorrow, after you've had some more rest and a few good meals. And here!" She offered Mina a handful of gummies, which the pink girl took gratefully. She was famished.

She eased her way out of bed, standing on legs that were shaky, but otherwise ok. Izuku offered her his arm, and she took it gratefully. It might not have been 100% necessary, but it was still helpful. They made their way toward the dorms, Izuku not noticing the looks that were thrown their way and Mina not caring about them.

Halfway back to the dorm, Mina stopped in the middle of the hall. "Midoriya, can we stop by the cafeteria and see if we can snag a snack? I'm dying here." Her stomach rumbled loudly, perfectly accentuating her point.

"You know, we have food back at the dorm."

"Not sure how much cooking I'm going to be doing with my arm like this" She said, raising the offending appendage slightly in its sling.

"I can cook for you." He said it so matter of factly that Mina almost did a double take.

"You can cook?"

He'd been doing a good job at hiding his nervous embarrassment up until that point, but her surprised question brought his nerves out full force.

"I-I mean just a little. I learned a bit watching my Mom make dinner, and before I moved into the dorms she made sure I could at least cook a few things for each meal." He scratched the back of his head self consciously. "S-Sorry for bringing it up, I'll just-"

"I"d love it!"

"H-Huh?!"

Mina gave her best million watt smile. "You offered to cook! No take backs!"

_What am I doing? _She thought to herself. _He startles easier than an ADD rabbit, and he's terrible with girls. I'll scare him away for good if I keep this up._

"I….uh….ok." He was once again close to resembling a tomato, but he was almost managing to meet her eyes, which for him was a bit step forward.

_Or maybe I'm just underestimating him again. Not the first time I've done that _

"Yeah!" She cheered, throwing her good arm in the air as she jumped in excitement. "Free food is the best food! I'm gonna eat a ton and get all ready for tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah! Recovery Girl said she'd get me all patched up tomorrow, so I can get back to training"

Izuku stopped short at that, and she pulled ahead of him before realizing he wasn't following her.

"Midoriya?"

"I...uh I don't think that's a good idea. My Quirk is...erh...kind of...destructive. Like earlier. It's…..it's not something you should overuse." He was looking at the scars on his hand, but his eyes were a thousand miles away.

Mina remembered when he got those scars. She'd watched him push himself way past the limits people had expected him to reach. But he'd broken himself in doing it. Uraraka told the rest of the class that he needed surgery from Recovery Girl, and she still hadn't been able to put him all the way back together. It wasn't the only time she'd seen the boy go past his breaking point.

It was, however, the first time she saw the reason why. Their class didn't discuss it much, but they had all drawn their own conclusions. After the fight with Izuku, Todoroki changed. He opened up, made jokes, and Mina could swear she saw him smile once. And everyone knew that Izuku was at the heart of that change. That he had helped that icy boy shed his shell and start to live his own life.

That was when Mina knew that Izuku was going to be a Hero. It wasn't his brain, or his brawn, or his luck, but his heart that had shown her that.

And it seemed a damn shame to her to let the other incredible power he wielded sit idle for an entire week.

"I get where you're coming from" She said, walking back to Izuku. "But still, I want to look cool like you. Zipping all over the place, fighting bad guys, covered in lightning the whole time." She mimed a few punches at imaginary foes, complete with sound effects.

That managed to wipe the grim expression off of Izuku's face. "I don't know about that. And I don't know if saying 'Kapow' everytime I land a blow is a good idea."

"Have you ever tried it?" She asked, a teasing note in her voice.

"Well, no, but-"

"You should! I'm sure it'll make you even better at fighting!"

Izuku laughed. She looked so earnest when she said it, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'll take your word for it. But, I still think trying to train with my Quirk is a bad idea. I'm still only just learning to use it well. I'm not sure I can really teach you, especially not in a week."

She hums to herself. "Mmmmmm. You're right. But maybe we could think of it less like you teaching me, than us learning together?" Mina brightened visibly at the thought. "Besides, you learned your cool lightning thing during the work experience week, right? How'd you manage that one?"

Izuku flushes at that, though she's not sure why. She hadn't been trying to tease him. Then he mutters something that she misses entirely, and it's much lower than his usual mutterings. She can catch every second or third word of those.

"What was that?"

"I…..uh….. I pictured myself in a new way, and spread my Quirk out over my body. And then I hold it there, so it doesn't put too much force in one place."

"Sounds simple enough." She says thoughtfully. "What kind of image?"

His eyes are firmly trained on the ground, and his skin is beet red as he mutters his response. This time, however, she manages to catch his reply.

"I pictured myself as a taiyaki in the microwave."

It's so unexpected and so out there that Mina can't help herself. She laughs, high and loud, doubling over as it becomes to much to laugh and continue breathing at the same time. When she comes up for air, the look on Izuku's face makes it clear that he wants nothing more than to be able to fall through the floor like their upperclassman Togata.

"I'm sorry for laughing" She says, mirth still evident in her voice "But, a taiyaki? I thought you'd have some kind of cool method, like picturing yourself as All Might, or some kind of special muscle flex. Didn't think you'd have something mundane like me."

"Like you?" He asks, raising his head a bit.

Now it's Mina's turn to blush. "Yeah. I, uh, I think of my Quirk like toothpaste. When I need my acid to be stronger, I just picture making the toothpaste mintier." She knows it's a strange way to conceive her Quirk, which is why she hasn't told anyone before. But maybe it's not so crazy if Izuku Midoriya, one of the strongest people she's ever met uses the same strategy.

"I like it." He says, blush fading from his cheeks. "It's simple, and straightforward, and down to earth. I'd say it's perfect for you, Ashido. Although, you might be able to improve the image if…" He devolves into muttering after that. If there's one thing that can always get Izuku talking, it's the subjects of Quirks and Heroism. He practically lives and breaths analysis.

Mina once overheard a conversation where Bakugou mentioned that Izuku keeps notebooks for his analysis, and Mina believes it. Izuku is always scribbling something in his notebook during class, and Mina's sure they're not all notes on the class materials. After that, she has wondered if there is a page in one of those notebooks devoted to her Quirk. Maybe someday, she'll even work up the courage to ask.

It takes her a few tries to snap Izuku out of his trance. Quirk talk always sends him deepest into his mind.

They make their way back to the dorm after that. Izuku still supports her uninjured arm, IT's not strictly necessary, since her legs have gotten plenty more steady since they departed the nurse's office. Neither of them bring up the idea of letting go as they walk back, discussing topics ranging from recent hero activity to studying tips for their next exam.

The dorms prove to be much more lively than they expected. Their classmates are still testing out their new Quirks, even though Aizawa had told them not to. They were supposed to keep it in the training room, but his tone when he had said this gave the impression he knew it was a rule that couldn't be enforced.

The tense atmosphere from the previous night had completely dissipated, and it was like they were all little kids again, enamoured by what they could now do. They were testing their new limits.

And they were pranking the hell out of each other.

Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari were using Mineta as some sort of human football. There were a few dents in the walls where he had obviously been slammed into them, but had come away not too much worse for wear. Tokoyami was attempting to counsel Jirou, who was sniffling from rude comments her Dark Shadow had made about her, and attempting to reign said shadow in as it zoomed around the room, cackling gleefully. Outside the common room, Aoyama was giving rapid instructions in French to a pair of well cared for looking rats who seemed to be performing some kind of folk dance. Kouda was looking on in horror, and struggling vainly to pull their fabulous classmate inside.

"Welcome back guys!" Uraraka called. She punted Mineta towards Kaminari, wincing slightly at the purple boy's hardened skin, before coming over to sling an arm around her friend's shoulder. "You feeling better Ashido?"

"Yep!" She does her best one armed flex. "I have to go back tomorrow for a bit of patching up, but after that I'll be right as rain!"

Uraraka smiles. "Glad to hear it. By the way, you should swing by the kitchen. Sato made cinnamon rolls again, and there were only a couple left last time I checked."

Mina squealed in excitement and dashed off to snag a confection, exhaustion from the healing temporarily banished. Cinnamon rolls had always been one of her favorite snacks, and she made sure to snag as many as she could whenever Sato made some for his classmates, calories be damned.

Uraraka and Izuku watched her go, the latter shaking his head as he watched her go. Just a few hours ago she had been broken and bleeding from using a power she didn't even realize she had. Now she was bouncing around happily. If nothing else, you had to admire her tenacity. And Izuku admired plenty else about her as well.

As if she could read his thoughts, Uraraka leaned in close. "Did the two of you have a nice walk?" She wore the devilish grin that Izuku had come to associate with her more sadistic side.

"I, uh, don't know what you're t-talking about" he managed to stammer out, knowing full well what a pathetic attempt at deflection it was.

"The two of you were pretty close at the club the other night. Then today the two of you went off together for private training, and come back arm in arm. I'm just curious about my two friends suddenly becoming so close."

"She broke her leg and arm. I-I wanted to be sure she made it back OK."

"I seem to remember you getting around fine after healing from similar injuries. Soooooooooo…" She let the syllable trail off, and stared expectantly.

"I did want to make sure she was ok" he says, his awkwardness in social situations no match for his friend's relentless optimism. She was always good at prying him out of his shell. "A-and I uh, like spending time with her."

"Deku," she gripped his hand, and only continued when he brought his eyes up to meet hers. "When things start getting back to normal, you need to ask her out, because you've got it bad for Ashido."

And that is all Izuku's brain can take. He turns a lovely shade of crimson, and practically sprints out of the room. He knows she's right, but feelings have never been his area of expertise, and romance even less so. So, he decides to go sit in his room, and try to sort things out for himself. He discovered years ago that talking to one of his All Might figures is a great way to vent worries or nerves, although it has made his conversations with the real thing….interesting.

* * *

An hour later, he hears a knock on his door which pulls him away from the textbook he was pouring over. Talking feelings with his limited edition Silver Age All Might action figure hadn't worked nearly as well as he had hoped, so he had figured he would get a head start on next week's academics.

Todoroki stood outside his door, expression as inscrutable as ever.

"Ashido and Uraraka want your help with something, but they were being cagey about what." He said simply, before turning to leave. Half way down the hall, he stopped and turned back. "You should prepare yourself. When those two plot, even Bakugou is frightened." With that, he made his exit, no doubt to continue studying for his remedial classes.

Izuku, for his part, swallowed down his nerves and made his way back to the common room. Aside from Todoroki and Bakugou, the entire class was present and sitting in a circle around Mina and Uraraka, who looked like they had just finished giving a business presentation.

"Well, what do you think?" Mina asked the crowd.

"I think it is an excellent plan, provided Midoriya agrees of course." Iida says

"I agree as well." Yaoyorozu says "He has shown a knack for things like this in the past, so I'm sure his insight would prove valuable."

"Uhhhh, my insight?" Izuku asked, startling most of the group.

"You know those notebooks you make for heroes and their Quirks?" Now Kaminari chimes in

"I am aware of them, yes." Izuku deadpans

"Well, we were hoping we could borrow them. Bakugou said you had notes about our Quirks in a couple of them, and we thought it would be handy to look through them for those of us that are struggling with the new Quirks."

Izuku is taken aback. He's been making and refining his hero analysis journals for years, and every time someone has found them, it's freaked them out. Yet here his classmates are, asking if they can borrow them, apparently not worried about it in the slightest.

"S-s-s-sure, you can. But, uh, you d-don't think it's creepy that I have notes about your Quirks?" He asked.

"Not gonna lie dude, it's a little creepy" Kirishima cuts in. He's hard to recognize with his hair down, since he looks so much softer.

Izuku winces. OK, they were a little worried by the discovery.

"Still" Kirishima adds "Now I wish I had made some notes on my Quirk before. Guess you had the right idea!"

He feels a knot of tension dissolve in his shoulders. All of his classmates are smiling at him, except Tokoyami who is as stoic as ever. He's surrounded by friends here, and they won't leave because of something like this.

"I'll...I'll go grab them then!" He says

"Need some help, Midori?" Mina asks.

"N-no! All good! Be back in a second!" He stammers, before dashing out of the common room again.

As he leaves, several eyes turn towards the pink girl.

"What's with the looks?" She asks, confused at the sudden attention.

"Midori?" Tsuyu says. "That's new. When did you give him that nickname?"

"Just now" Mina says. "We're Quirk buddies after all! What better way to commemorate this momentous occasion than swapping nicknames?" She chuckles at that.

"What's his nickname for you?" Hagakure asks, always ready to hear new stories about her classmates. She always has the best gossip of anyone in the dorm, and most of her classmates are convinced she uses her powers to eavesdrop whenever she gets the chance. She proves surprisingly deft at dodging the question whenever it is brought up, however.

"I don't know yet" Mina says, "But I hope it's a good one."

* * *

Izuku pulls a pair of notebooks out of his closet, as well as a stack of loose papers covered in hastily scribbled notes. He's been meaning to throw these out, but had never had the heart to do it. Now, he's glad he didn't.

The notes on the loose paper are out of date, but he figures having more copies of his notes to share around means people will have to spend less time waiting for the notebooks. And besides, the notes aren't completely useless, just slightly off.

Then Izuku reaches under his bed and pulls out two more notebooks.

The first has a green cover, and is filled with loose sheets that have been stuffed into the notebook after the fact, as well as colored tabs denoting different sections. The cover announces '**My Quirk**' in large, blocky letters. He remembers being so overjoyed when he was writing those letters that he had gone through half a box of tissues before he could finish them.

He plans to give this book to Mina after he hands out the rest. Intellectually he knows having a separate notebook for his own Quirk isn't egotistical, but it still feels a little self centered to him. Still, he'd done a good job filling the pages so far, and his inherited Quirk still had depths to plumb and aspects to uncover, so perhaps it was for the best.

The second notebook is much different. This one is clean, and precise. The tabs in it are orderly and color coded by subject. It is also the only one of his analysis notebooks that doesn't have any writing on the cover. It's pink coating is still shiny and unmarred.

He flips to the first page in the book, and a sketch of Mina in her hero costume takes up most of it. Surrounding the picture are notes about the features of her costume, and how its design could be altered to try and enhance the features of her Quirk. He flips forward in the book, nearly 3/4ths of the way to the end. Another picture of Mina stares back at him, but this one is decidedly less clinical.

She has her eyes closed, and a massive grin on her face. A pair of thumbs up complete the picture, and the only note on the page is a date just below the image. He flashes back to the moment he drew the sketch of. Despite failing her midterm exam, she had flashed him that look when he had asked how she was feeling. Afterward, he had felt like he was the one who needed to go lay down for a bit.

The notebook had started out as another Hero Analysis notebook, but it had become entirely devoted to his lovely, kind, hilarious pink classmate.

He placed the notebook back under his bed and sighed. _Uraraka was right _He thought to himself. _I have it really bad for her._


	4. Shut Up and Dance With Me

The following day sees class 1A split during their normal foundational hero studies class. Those who feel they have a handle on their new Quirks, such as Mineta, Uraraka, Iida, and Sero are paired with Number 13 at the USJ to work on practical applications for their borrowed Quirks.

Those who are still struggling with usage in some way, such as Mina and Jirou, return to Gym Gamma and Cementoss's training dreamland. Their goal was to gain better control of their new Quirks before joining the rest of the class in something closer to their regular class.

Izuku was with the latter group, not because he lacked control of Acid, but because he needed to keep an eye on Mina. All that morning the pink girl had been constantly asking him about thier now shared Quirk, diving deep into the notebook he had made and pulling out scribbles he had completely forgotten about. After the third time she brought up trying a move or attack method that he had dismissed due to the risk of injury or other dangers, he had resolved to spend the day watching her like a hawk.

Now, she was across from him, doing her best to learn Full Cowl, but having only marginal success. Aizawa was also on standby, ready to erase One for All before Mina could blow one of her limbs off accidentally. Or someone else's for that matter.

She had managed to get to the level where she could activate the state for short periods, but it was failing quickly, and she couldn't move while doing it. Mostly, it was maintaining the image that was difficult. She found splitting her attention like that very confusing, and one thread or the other kept slipping away from her. Either she would stop paying attention to her movements and trip over her own feet, or she would lose the image in her head and the power would flare in her chest, and then she would feel cold as Aizawa erased her Quirk.

It was getting to her way more than she cared to admit.

"I think we could all use a break" Izuku said, as he stood and dusted his palms off. He had been toying with his acid's viscosity, trying to replicate Mina's Acid Veil. All he had managed so far was a very goopy mound with the consistency of hair gel.

"I agree" Aizawa said, coming down from the pillar he was perched on. "You two should have a chat about your powers again. In the meantime, I have another mess to deal with." He headed off in the direction of the mad cackling from Dark Shadow and Jirou's frantic shouts.

"At least someone's having a worse time of it" Mina said morosely, placing her chin in her hands.

"Ashido, it's been less than a day since you figured out you even had my Quirk. It took me months to even get to the point where I wasn't breaking my bones with every use. And if you remember, I did that quite a lot. Give yourself a little slack."

"I know" She sighed. "It just feels like everyone is getting more out of this than I am. They're off using their Quirks for training, or pranking each other, and I have to sit here and do all sorts of boring image training so I don't accidentally break stuff. It just feels like I'm a little kid sitting in the tub again."

"If you want" Izuku said, a hint of playfulness in his usually hesitant tone "I can get Todoroki to come over here, and help you break a few fingers. Get the true Izuku Midoriya experience."

Mina burst out laughing. She'd heard Izuku crack jokes before, but there was something about his deadpan delivery of the last line that really sold it.

"I think I'll pass. Had more than enough yesterday. Seriously, your pain tolerance must be insane Midori."

"Midori?"

"It's your new nickname! I figured since we're Quirk Buddies now, we should give each other nicknames. And I'm expecting mine to be good, so don't dissapoint!"

"I'm…. not very good with coming up with nicknames. Not much practice. Sorry." He ducked his head, clearly embarrassed.

"In that case," Mina said as a wicked grin crept onto her face "Call me Mina until you come up with something!"

His jaw dropped open. "Wha-no-I-I-can't-I-mean-I-I-shouldn't-that-would-just-be-"

"Breathe Midori" She gave him a hearty slap on the back, which did manage to break him out of his anxiety spiral. "It's fine. We're Quirk buddies and friends as well. Besides, you call Tsuyu by her first name."

"That-That's different"

She quirked a brow at him. "How so?"

"W-Well….that's because….ummmm" He trails off. He didn't really have an excuse. Calling Tsuyu by her first name still took effort on his part, as well as the occasional reminder. "I-It just is." He had to turn away so she can't see the expression on his face.

"Midoriiiiiiiiiiii" She puts on her best pouting face, which was remarkably effective. When he turned back towards her, her wide black and gold eyes were slightly watery and seemed to bore their way straight into his heart. Izuku can't help it. He caves.

"I…..I'll try M-Mina" He's a blushing mess the entire time he says it, but in the end, he does use her given name.

Mina cheered at her small victory, and hopped to her feet. "Now I'm pumped. Let's get training!"

"N-not without Aizawa!"

"Boooo! He's taking too long and I need to blow off some steam." Then she grinned as an idea occurred to her. She reached down into her boot and slipped her phone out. In true Mina fashion, she had swapped her case out for a special one she had , courtesy of Hatsume, that was both durable and matched her costume pattern.

"You keep your phone on your for training? Why? " Izuku asked, utterly surprised. He had way too many precious pictures he had taken during hero fights, as well as a few surreptitious photos of their professors, saved on his phone to ever risk it during practice.

"Only on light practice days. And it's in case I get bored during one of the lectures. Or…." She had found what she was looking for on her screen, and held it aloft as music began to play "In case I need some music!"

Izuku could only shake his head as she began to dance. It wasn't anything near the amazing performance she had put on in the dance club. She was just having fun. Occasionally she would mime a particular lyric, usually setting Izuku to giggling with the over the top acting.

Finally, the song came to an end and there was a spot of dead air while Mina's phone shuffled to the next track. Izuku clapped dutifully, and Mina took a small bow and doffed an imaginary cap. The first notes of the next song started to play and Mina's eyes lit up.

"Ooooh! I love this song!" She quickly set the phone down on a nearby chunk of concrete, cranking the volume up as loud as it would go. Then, she got to dancing.

This time, she did give the dance her full attention. Like in the club, it was an electronic tune with plenty of bass. The speakers made it soft and tinny, but enough was left for Mina to sink into her rhythm. She swayed, and clapped, and even spun, though the uneven terrain made her regret that choice a bit. It was only a passing regret though. She was focused on the flow of her movements to the song, like the old dance machine she had used to play with as a kid with her dad.

Even through the concentration, Mina caught glimpses of Izuku watching her. Once again, he was staring with wide eyes, and a huge smile was plastered on his face.

_He looks adorable like that _She thought to herself.

As the song came down to the last few notes, Mina decided to finish her impromptu performance with a showstopper. She tensed her legs, then leapt up and pumped her fist into the air. She was fully expecting another round of applause.

She was not expecting to be launched twenty feet into the air.

She yelped in surprise, and looked frantically down at the ground which had suddenly disappeared from under her. Below her, she could see cracks in the concrete where she had been standing a moment before. It was only thanks to her training that she escaped without injury. As she came up to the ground, she let her legs collapse her to the side, and slapped the ground to dissipate some of the force. Her palms slammed into the concrete and cracked it in several places and clouds of dust shot up around her. She rolled several times, before coming to a stop, more than a little dazed, right by where Izuku was standing with a now completely different kind of shocked expression on his face.

"Ashi-Mina! Are you ok? Do you need to see Recovery Girl?" He quickly checked her legs, fearful of seeing her broken and bleeding limbs again. Thankfully, her legs appeared to be fine.

"I…..think I'm ok. Just a bit, uh, shellshocked. What happened?"

"You were using Full Cowl! At least, I think you were. It looks different, but you were definitely doing something."

What Mina hadn't seen and what had captivated Izuku, aside from the obviously captivating nature of a beautiful girl dancing her heart out in front of him, was her radiant glow. The pink sparkles that suffused her skin when she activated the Quirk had lifted off of her skin as she danced and trailed behind her, giving the illusion of phantom glowing arms. Her dancing had been different as well.

At the club, it had been frenetic and wild, the semi familiar beat keeping her moves from being perfectly polished.

This time, she had moved with a fluid grace that Izuku had never seen someone poses before. Every move had been perfect and brilliantly executed, and the inhuman grace she had displayed completed the look of a many armed, shining goddess.

"Wait, really? But I wasn't even trying to do it. I wasn't even thinking about the taiyaki" Mina said, surprise and confusion evident in her voice as she tried to process this new development.

And in that moment, Izuku could slap himself. "Oh my god. You're doing the same thing I did when I got my Quirk!"

"What are you talking about?"

"When I was first using my Quirk, I was trying to act exactly like All Might. I copied his movements, and his attacks, and everything. But it didn't work for me. I had to think up my own way to use my Quirk. That's what the taiyaki was about. Shoot Style too."

"I remember that." Mina says, sitting up. "I still can't believe you modeled your entire persona after him, just because your Quirks are similar."

He blanched a little at that. "Yeah, heh, I'm just a uh, big fanboy. ANYWAYS! The point is, the image of the taiyaki works for me, but it doesn't work for you. Whatever you were thinking about when you were dancing, though, that's the key to using the Quirk."

"But I wasn't picturing anything." She said, still confused. "That's the point. Dancing is a great way for me to clear my head when I get too into my own head. It's pretty much the opposite of keeping an image in my head."

"Then don't keep an image in your head"

Mina blinked in surprise. "Huh?"

"The best way I can think to explain it is like this. A while ago, when I was just embracing my Quirk and couldn't use it without hurting myself, I asked All Might for tips." He realized he was coming dangerously close to admitting his relationship to All Might without even really thinking about it. "You know, since our powers are so similar. Heh. Anyways, he said that when he used his power, he clenched his butt and yelled "Smash!" in his heart." Izuku unconsciously mimed a 'smash' pose as he said that causing Mina to burst out in giggles.

Izuku blushed fiercely. "Please don't tell him I shared that with you. My point is, for him it's all physical and emotional. His heart drives his muscles forward. But I always have to think about the things I do. When I rush in, I just end up hurt. So I had to figure out how to use my head to drive my power."

He pointed at Mina. "You're really good at the physical part of heroism. Ever since I saw you fight in our first battle trial, you've impressed me. Todoroki kind of overshadows everyone, but I think you're one of the better fighters in the class. In the sports festival too, you made it just as far as I did, and without sending yourself to the nurses office too."

Izuku had drifted off into his own world as he talked, not quite to his usual level of muttering, but on the fringes. For once, Mina is immensely thankful for the boy's tendency to lose focus on the world around him. It means that he doesn't notice the absolutely radiant blush that has turned her entire face a deep violet. She can't help it, as he heaps praise on her so matter of factly, as if it should be obvious to anyone that what he's saying is true.

One of, if not the strongest, member of their class is saying how much _she _impressed _him_. And to top it all off, it's not just some powerhouse of a student like Togata complimenting her. It's Midori. The sweet, loveable, heart of gold center of their class. She's sure it's enough to make any girl swoon a bit. Except maybe Jirou. Mina's pretty sure she plays for the other team.

She brought her attention back to Izuku just as he manages to pull himself out of his thought spiral. "Um, sorry. I got a bit distracted again. But, I think that you should treat Full Cowl as if it's just like dancing. A natural rhythm for your body to follow."

Mina thought about it. It's definitely not something she's tried yet. It's hard to think of this Quirk that's been suddenly given to her as anything but unnatural. Honestly, the idea of Quirks being traded around from person to person still seemed crazy to her, even though she knew it was possible after the villain from the Kamino ward incident had removed Ragdoll's Quirk.

She had just decided to give it a go when Aizawa returns from helping Jirou. Izuku and Mina had been too focused to notice the lack of maniacal laughter and frustrated yelling coming from their classmate's section of the training ground.

"Have a good rest, you two? Managed not to blow off any limbs while I wasn't looking?" Aizawa said, his voice as tired and monotone as ever. He was eyeing the cracks and shattered sections of the concrete

"We're pretty sure we made a breakthrough, actually" Izuku replies. "Ash-Mina, do you want to give it a go?"

Aizawa quirked a brow at the sudden change to using her first name. Izuku using less than formal language was something he considered a sign of the coming apocalypse, right after Yamada not trying to drag him off to a bar to cut loose every weekend.

Mina nodded, then stepped back into the center space. And stood there, feeling extremely awkward. Both Aizawa and Izuku are watching expectantly, but she's not sure where exactly to begin.

Then music starts to play, a familiar tune that's not really one of her favorites, but she knows it well. She glanced over to see Izuku holding her phone and smiling broadly. And like that, she feels at ease.

She starts to move to the tune, slowly at first, letting herself fall into the flow state that dancing brings her. Then she moves faster, cutting loose with moves that she's been practicing for years and can now do easily.

Perhaps it's because she had been expecting it, but as Mina dances, she starts to feel the effects of Full Cowl. Things around her seem to slow down and the moves she's doing are easier to do than ever before. Curious, she attempted a few harder moves, ones that usually tripped her up or that she regularly failed at. It's not effortless, and she almost flubs a few of them, but it's like her flexibility and balance have both increased dramatically.

She can maintain the state too. The song ends, but Mina didn't stop with it. She kept moving as the next song started, feeling more confident as she went. At a crescendo in the song, she ran to one of the concrete plautus and kicked off the edge. She soared through the air in a perfect backflip and landed in a properly heroic pose.

Aizawa would never admit it in a million years, but he was suitably impressed with the girl. Her academics were abysmal, but her athletics had always been above average. This, however, was orders of magnitude above where she had been. He was tempted to clap when she stuck the landing, but knew it would ruin his strict image.

He was especially glad he decided against clapping when Mina broke the illusion of grace by dabbing after he landing.

Izuku snorted and killed the music. He tossed the phone back to Mina, who was barely short of breath despite the impressive display. "What do you think, sir?"

"Playing music during battle is out of the question. Fix that, and we'll talk." He stood from his crouch. "Now, I have other students to attend to. Make sure I don't get another earful from Recovery Girl." With that, he leapt away, moving from pillar to pillar with practiced ease.

"Would it kill him to use a little positive reinforcement?" Izuku said, slightly irritated at their teacher's brusque attitude.

"That's the highest praise he's given me all year Midori. Pretty sure that's just how he's wired."

"Maybe, but still it's an important part of teaching, and especially after you worked to hard, I think he could really stand to-"

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Midori, you're starting to mutter."

"Sorry"

"It's fine. Now, stop standing around and come dance with me!"

* * *

The pair of students are very absorbed in their dancing. They laugh and joke and sing along to lyrics they barely no, without a care in the world. Izuku hasn't blushed in several minutes, despite having very close contact with Mina several times.

Mina herself is even more energetic than usual. She's always happiest when she's with friends, and Izuku is helping her have the time of her life. She's practically glowing, and this time it's not caused by any Quirk.

Over the music, turned as loud as the phone's speakers will go, neither of them hear a phone's shutter clicking over and over, snapping the choicest pictures of them practically arm in arm as they sing along to a pop song that has been turned into a meme.

They don't see said phone appear to walk itself away from them, disappearing around a corner as it's invisible owner flips through the various shots before she finds one she's satisfied with.

They certainly don't see as Hagakure smiles a wide grin as she views the perfect shot of her friends. The two are pressed up against each other, each pointing at a different part of the screen as they choose the next song. Izuku has his hand on Mina's shoulder, and both of them look like kids on Christmas.

_They're so cute _Hagakure thinks to herself. _Uraraka's going to love it. Especially after all the work she's put in for them. _

She taps her phone against her chin. _Now, how do we get Ashido to admit she's crushing hard on that boy?_

Hagakure gives Dark Shadow a run for its money when it comes to maniacal laughter that day.


	5. Pause for Effect

As far as Mina was concerned, today had gone excellently. After their discovery of her ability to use her swapped Quirk while dancing, they had done their best to get her able to apply it when she wasn't moving to music. It had taken a few false starts, several more rounds of dancing, and one session of cursing the universe, which left Izuku looking rather scandalized, but Mina had managed to use her own version of Full Cowl.

They realized quickly that it was distinctly different from Izuku's. His Full Cowl distributed his overwhelming power across his body, to better let him control it as well as not blowing his limbs apart. Mina's 'Full Veil' enhanced her internal abilities, such as balance and reactions more than her base strength . She still got a significant power boost, just not as significant as her Quirk Buddy.

Once she'd figured out how to use Full Veil without music, by means of finding her own personal rhythm to move to, they worked on movement. That had taken some adjustment. She was used to moving around on acid skates when she needed to go fast, but the technique did not carry over which she found out after face planting into the ground a few times. Instead, she had to learn how to leap from place to place, and not smash her face into the walls.

She found it surprisingly easy once she got into it. Judging distance was a work in progress, but by the end of their training session, Mina was bouncing around in a manner that reminded Izuku of Gran Torino.

The fact that the energetic girl was now capable of literally bouncing off the walls was not lost on the pair, or on Aizawa, who came to check on the pair as their training time came to a close. After watching for a few minutes, he had given Mina the go ahead to join the rest of the class on the next day's training.

He had eyed her victory dance as if he was regretting his decision immensely.

Izuku and Mina called their training there, and Mina had promptly ran to the showers. The training had left her sweaty, dusty, and exhausted. A nice warm shower had sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

She'd beaten the rest of the girls back, and hopped in alone. The water had been heavenly, and the quiet time gave her plenty of time to sort out her thoughts.

Training with Izuku had been way more fun than she imagined. UA training was always interesting of course, but today had been actually _fun_. She'd laughed and pushed herself and actually felt like she had grown. But she found herself wondering if it was fun because of the new experience, learning to use an unfamiliar power and new moves as well as showing off her talents. Or, was it who she had been training with.

_I love spending time with Toru _Mina thought to herself, _But would it have been as nice training with her today? Once he got past his awkwardness, he was great to hang out with..Maybe I should put another outing together. Maybe after our Quirks are back to normal though. I think the last attempt is still a bit too fresh._

She was just toweling herself off from the shower when she heard the door to the locker room beyond open. _Perfect_ She thought. _I can get Toru's help on this. Maybe Uraraka too, since she's one of Midori's friends. I wonder if she knows what he likes to do to relax…_

"Hey, Toru there's something I want to talk to you abou…" She opened the door to the locker room, and stopped dead. Standing in the center of the locker room was Mineta, eyes closed as he inhaled deeply. Mina's eyes practically bulged out of her skull. The little pervert had made no secret of his deviant tendencies, but this was going way too far.

"You little shit!" She yelled, hurling the closest object to her at the time, which happened to be a textbook Yaoyorozu had left lying around, at his head. He yelped, and dodged out of the way. Obviously, he hadn't expected any of the girls to be back yet.

Now the pair stood in a standoff. Mina needed to get to her clothes behind him, while he was eyeing a spot behind her. The each called their borrowed Quirks, Mina beginning to sparkle while Mineta's features grew sharper. She remembered then that he had ended up with Kirishima's Hardening Quirk, which would make hitting him painful.

The stood like that for several seconds. Then, the other doors to the locker room opened, the rest of the girls from class 1A walked in, and all hell broke loose.

Someone screamed at Mineta's face, which looked practically demonic between his lecherous smile and hardened features. He decided in that moment to make a break for it. He tore past Mina with surprising speed. He tried to yank her towel as he went, but she held on with fierce determination. He gave it up as a lost cause, and decided instead to go for his goal. He attached himself to a large concrete pillar which stood the end of a row of lockers, and activated his Quirk full force.

"HAHAHAHAHA! I have reached the promised land, and no one can send me back! This pillar is load bearing, and nothing is moving me. I trained all day with Bakugou for this. I am the Unbreakable Grape Rush!"

The girls of 1A all looked at eachother, and for a moment they were almost impressed. Then Mina cracked her knuckles.

"Oh yeah. This is gonna be cathartic. Yaomomo, mind giving him the chair?"

"Not at all Ashido." The usually stoic Yaoyorozu had a look of grim determination on her face as electricity crackled around her.

In the second before the electricity hit him, Mineta realized that he had fucked up.

He spasmed, and his arms let go of the pillar. Amazingly, he stayed conscious, and kept the Hardening from fading, which saved him from the next strike. Mina let Full Veil flow through her as she wound up a kick and punted the purple pervert as hard as she dared. Her leg throbbed with the blowback force, but didn't do any lasting damage.

Mineta blasted across the locker room and slammed through the door, taking it off of its hinges and sending it and the boy skidding across the hallway. It was an impressive show of force.

_I hope I gave him a concussion _She thought to herself.

"Is everyone OK?" Came a familiar voice from outside the locker room. Izuku poked his head around the corner, concern evident in his face. He had heard a scream, then seen the door flung across the hall, and had sprinted to make sure that nothing terrible had happened, or lend assistance if it had.

In that moment Mina noticed two things. The first was that with the door blown away, anyone could simply stare into the women's lockers. The second was that when she had focused on kicking Mineta's ass, she had dropped her towel.

Apparently Izuku noticed too, as he turned bright red and spun his head away so fast Mina could swear she heard the bones in his neck creak. A blush lit both his and Mina's faces, and the rest of the people in the room could swear they actually felt the temperate in the room rise a degree or two.

Jirou and Uraraka jumped between Mina and the door, doing their best to protect her from further exposure. Hagakure attempted the same, though to much less success. Asui grabbed Mina's clothes with her tongue, and helped the girl cover herself.

* * *

After they managed to clean up a little, with help from Cementoss, and get everyone situated, Izuku was nothing but apologies.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to see-I mean I wasn't trying to look at anything, I was just trying to see if everyone was OK I swear!"

Mine gave him a side eyed glare, her arms crossed and her chin held high. She knew, of course, that Izuku's intentions had been entirely pure. She also knew that a chance to tease him like this might not come again for quite a while, so she was going to milk it for all it was worth.

"So, you didn't see my navel piercing?"

Izuku blinked in confusion. "You don't have a piercing."

"You did look!"

"No wait I just-!"

"Deku" Uraraka cut in "She's just teasing you. I think I speak for everyone when I say Mineta's the one we're annoyed with, not you." Everyone nodded their agreement. Their punishment of him had been cathartic, but even seeing him hauled off to the principal's office by Aizawa hadn't entirely cooled their anger. Each of them was hoping that Principal Nedzu's infamous sadistic side would be making an appearance.

Izuku wasn't the only one who came over and apologized to the girls. Kaminari and Sero had heard Mineta planning something, but he hadn't shared the details with them, and they didn't think it was serious enough to warn the girls. Iida came over as well, bowing deeply and apologizing for not noticing Mineta slipping away early from training.

Mina was glad that there hadn't been anyone else in class involved with the plot. Having Mineta in the class was one pervert too many to have to deal with on a daily basis. She shivered as she remembered the encounter. Having his eyes roam across her had made her want to jump back in the shower and scrub herself pinker. It wasn't like having Izuku look at her, she was fine with that.

_Wait no, now is not the time for this. It's harder to tease him when I start caring._

* * *

While Mina tried to stay aloof, and Izuku tried to make up for his perceived slight, a very important meeting took place.

"What did you want to discuss Hagakure?" Uraraka asked.

"And why must we keep it a secret?" Iida said, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "If you are having an issue, we are happy to help, but I guarantee our other classmates would be just as willing." A pained look crossed his face. "Indeed, I would strongly recommend against trying to shoulder any burdens yourself. That is a quick path towards regret."

"Nothing bad Prez, I promise." She was wearing casual gloves, which let her use her hands to emote, rather than relying solely on her body movements. She flashed Iida a quick thumbs up to mollify him.

"So, what's not bad, but still urgent enough that we have to meet in secret ASAP?" Kirishima asked, referring to the message she had sent to the group a few minutes ago, asking them to meet her outside the dorms.

"The two of you" She indicated Iida and Uraraka "Are Midoriya's besties, which means you'll be able to answer my questions. I thought about asking Bakugou, but….."

"You were afraid of him blowing your head off." Kirishima finished for her.

"Yeah. Anyways!" She held up her fingers to bring the attention back to her. "I need to know; Does Midoriya have a crush on Mina?"

Iida spluttered in shock. "Hagakure! That is completely inappropriate!

"Oh yeah, he's head over heels for her" Uraraka cut in before he could launch into one of his lectures. "He's had it for a while, but I think he finally started noticing these last few days."

"Way to sell the guy out Uraraka." Kirishima said. He saw where this was going, but still felt like it was his duty to act as a somewhat moderating force.

Hagakure jumped for joy. She loved it when a plan came together. "OK, so, I was watching them today, and they looked so perfect together that I think we need to help push them to the next step."

"Hagakure, interfering with our classmate's love lives is hardly a heroic activity! Besides, you only have proof of a one sided attraction, which is not a healthy start to any relationship. We should-"

Hagakure cut Iida off mid rant. "You haven't heard Mina talk about him. She acts like Midoriya hung the moon in the sky. And she will not stop talking about him whenever he does something cool. I listened to her talk about him for two hours after he updated his costume for the License exam. I don't think she even noticed how long she was going for."

"Hagakure's not kidding." Kirishima said. "You should have heard her after the sports festival."

"Plus, look at this photo I took of them today and tell me that these two aren't perfect for eachother." Hagakure held up her phone to show the photo of Izuku with his arm around Mina's shoulder casually while they looked at her phone, great big smiles on both their faces, and only a hint of a blush on their cheeks.

"That is so sweet!" Uraraka said. "You have to send me a copy of this."

"Hold on!" Iida wasn't willing to let his point be swept away by the two girl's enthusiasm. "Even if there is a mutual affection, I do not believe that we should interfere like you are proposing we do. Would it not be better to let their feelings develop naturally into a relationship?"

Iida would be nothing short of pleased to see his friend enter into a happy romantic relationship, but was still hesitant to interfere in any way. He remembered an incident where some mutual friends had tried to set one of their own up with his brother Tensei, which had not gone well for anyone involved.

"If we do that," Hagakure said, "I Think we'll be here quite a while. From what I've heard, Mina wants to be swept off her feet, and Midoriya is pretty passive so…"

"Yeah, he's never going to make the first move." Uraraka agreed. "He doesn't think Mina would ever be into someone like him." Kirishima and Ida shot her a surprised look at that. "Mina's not the only one who talks about her crush. Or thinks they're so amazing you can't recognize who they're describing."

"Any more objections?" Hagakure asked, her posture implying an exaggerated glare in Iida's direction.

"Not currently, but I reserve the right to step in if I feel like things are getting out of hand."

"Alright!" She rubbed her hands together in excitement. "Now, let's get planning!"

* * *

Izuku was in the midst of studying for a quiz they had coming at the end of the week when he heard a knock at his door. He set his textbook aside and went to answer the door. He was surprised anyone was up this late. Most of them had worked hard in today's training and dinner time had seen more than one person almost nod off into their food.

He opened the door to reveal Mina, dressed for bed and holding a pair of notebooks in her arms. Her pajamas were in a similar color scheme to her bedspread from what Izuku remembered. The only deviations from the theme were a pair of alien themed slippers, complete with bobbing eyestalks that wiggled as she walked.

"Ash- Uh, Mina? Do you need something?"

"Just wanted to return this. Yaomomo sent hers back as well." She held the notebooks out to him, and he recognized the well worn covers. His Hero Analysis for the Future volume 14, as well as the notebook for his own Quirk. He had left the Hero Analysis with Yaoyorozu the night before, as she wanted to study his notes on Electrification in greater detail than time allowed. Mina had also asked to borrow the analysis book for One for All. He had been very thankful that he had kept any references to inheriting the Quirk from All Might out of the book, as well as not mentioning it by name.

_Sometimes, _He thought, _Paranoia pays off_

"Thanks" He said, taking them from her. "Are you sure you don't need to borrow it for longer? I'm not using it, and you might be able to get something you missed on the first pass."

"Book learning isn't really my thing. I'm actually kind of surprised I managed to make it through the whole thing without passing out. You're writing is waaaaaay better than any of those Quirk info textbooks Aizawa's always having us read. Though I could have done without the page long interludes of drawings of you as All Might's sidekick." She grinned maliciously as she said that, and Izuku felt his face heat up.

He'd forgotten how many of his childhood fantasies he had put into that notebook. And a few more recent fantasies. Even though he was older and slightly more world wise, Izuku was a die hard All Might fan and that would never change.

He laughed nervously. "W-What can I say. He inspired me to be a hero, and getting trained by him was a dream come true."

"I'll bet it was. I'm kind of amazed you didn't faint that first day. Or ask him to sign anything."

"I, uh, kind of already met him before class. So I wasn't as surprised. And….. wel he did sign one of my notebooks before, when I first met him. I didn't want to bother him at work either." It was mostly true too. Although not asking his mentor to sign some of his rarer merchandise had taken some serious willpower.

"Really? That's so like you Midori. Did you have him make it out to 'My biggest, nerdiest fan'?"

Izuku flushed with embarrassment once more. "Well, I didn't really ask him to sign. I was, uh, kind of unconscious at the time. So he just signed below a picture I drew of him in his Silver Age costume."

"Oooh! Can I see?" Despite training under the man for several months, All Might was still such a cultural icon that Mina coulnd't help but be excited at seeing his autograph. And besides, she wanted to see what Izuku's rendering of their over the top teacher looked like.

Izuku let her into his room as he grabbed the notebook in question. He had left his Hero Analysis volumes on his desk in preparation for a future project. Their swapping of Quirks had given him ideas for Hero costume designs for if some Pros had their Quirks swapped. It would be a purely hypothetical exercise, but Izuku was just nerdy enough for it to sound like great fun.

Mina took the notebook from him, and plopped down in his desk chair, spinning lazily as she flipped through the pages. Izuku took a seat on his bed and watched her read. He'd mostly gotten over the embarrassment of showing his notebooks the following day. No one had found his obsession too creepy, which made him feel much better.

As Mina chuckled at some of his notes at the margin about Mt. Lady's debut and general image, Izuku turned his eyes away from her. Ever since he'd acknowledged his feelings for Mina, he'd found his nervousness around her had changed forms. Before, he had been awkward because she was a very pretty girl who was funny, and kind, and seemed to enjoy talking to him, which was an experience he had definitely not had before.

Now he felt himself constantly overthinking his actions, wondering if what he said or did was going to annoy her, or worse, make her not want to spend time with him. He felt like he was constantly pinging back and forth between elation that she was spending so much time with him, and the despair of knowing that sometime soon he was going to to something so horrendously stupid that she wouldn't be able to overlook it and would never want to hang out with him again.

He sighed and shook his head. _This was so much easier when I was just watching her from afar. _Then he froze as his eyes caught sight of the top of his desk.

At the top of the stack of notebooks was his Mina notebook. He hadn't noticed before, being too caught up in trying to let her into his room without knocking over any of the figures that coated the shelves in his room.

His heart dropped down into his stomach instantly. He was safe for the moment, as Mina was absorbed with her current notebook. But when she finished, all she would have to do would be turn around. And Izuku knew with certainty that if she saw the notebook, she would investigate it, and he would keel over from sheer embarrassment.

_I have to find some way to cover it up before she notices. That, or get her out of the room._

"Wow, you got to see Mt. Lady during her debut huh?" Mina was reaching the end of the notebook, and Izuku's brain was kicking into overdrive.

_Maybe if I just…._

Mina set the notebook down suddenly. "Midoriya, can I ask you a question?" Her use of his actual name caught him off guard. When she picked a nickname for someone, she always stuck with it, so he knew she had done it intentionally.

"Oh, uh, sure. G-Go ahead"

"Last night, I was looking through your hero notebooks, and you have at least a page or two on everyone else in the class, but I couldn't find myself. Maybe I'm just being selfish, but I just wanted…. I don't know. Is it my Quirk? I know Acid is really straight forward, but so is Invisibility, and Hagakure got a page."

The question was so far out of left field that Izuku was left floundering. As she spoke, she seemed to deflate. Her shoulders sagged and her head turned down to stare at the slightly singed journal that rested in her lap.

"M-Mina your Quirk is great! It's really strong, and versatile, and it's going to help you be a great hero!" He was doing his best to lift her back up. When compared to her usual bubbly personality, her sadness seemed even more pronounced.

"You say all that, but when we were training today, you barely even used it. And when you did, it was always at arm's length. It's cuz Acid is scary, right. I mean, I know it is, but I just hoped that-"

"Mina." Izuku cut in, firmly, and Mina startled. He was so meek most of the time that it was easy to forget that he could be demanding when he wanted to be. "Your Quirk isn't scary. Especially when compared to mine. And the reason I was being careful is this."

He went over to his laundry hamper and pulled out a large piece of blue and white cloth. As he turned it around, she realized that it was a mostly destroyed Gym uniform. The left arm was entirely missing, the fabric around the edge of the missing section was warped and fraying. There were a multitude of smaller holes all across the garment as well.

"When you were in Recovery Girl's office yesterday, I spent the time working on using Acid, and I got a bit overzealous." He chuckled to himself. "This is the fifth uniform I've rendered unusable. Any more and I think Aizawa will make me train shirtless just to remind me that clothes aren't free."

That managed to wring a chuckle from Mina, and to lift her mood slightly. Living with a destructive Quirk all her life had left her with a bit of a complex about it. She usually kept her feeling about it buried, but when they did come out, it always brought her down. She was glad to see that Izuku wasn't scared of her Quirk. She had lost a few friends in the past when they had found out she could dissolve things so easily.

"So…. if you think my Quirk is cool, how come there wasn't a page in your journal on me?" She asked.

Izuku paled a bit. He had been hoping that she would let that point go. The problem with her asking like this was that he didn't want to lie and say he didn't have a page for her and make her feel worse than she already was. But he would be damned if she saw the mushy ramblings that his Mina notebook had devolved into.

"I….uh….well...it's not that there isn't one. It's just….I ran out of space for everyone in the class in the previous notebook. So I started a new one, but I didn't show everyone because I have Acid and I don't really need the notebook, since I already have it you know." With an effort of will, he closed his mouth mid ramble. Even if what he was saying was mostly true, improvising a story to fill in the gaps had never been a strong suit of his.

Mina brightened considerably as he said that, and Izuku started to sweat. She was adorable, and it was getting harder to not say anything about the notebook the longer she stared at him.

"Can I look at it? I wanna see what you came up with for super moves! And costume ideas. Yaomomo showed me your redesign of her costume, and it look so much better!" She drew close to him as she spoke, and he flushed a bit. He couldn't ignore the little bit of warmth he could barely feel emanating from her, or the puppy dog eyes she was flashing him.

"I...uh...can't….because I, uh, lent it to…. Todoroki! He wanted extra study time for his new Quirk's uses so I lent it to him, and he hasn't given it back yet!" Izuku made a note to get to Todoroki first. The boy owed him a favor, and Izuku would cash it if necessary to get the split haired boy to back him up in his deception.

"But Todoroki didn't get a new Quirk." Mina said.

Izuku's eyes widened as he cursed his inability to lie. Unconsciously, his eyes flicked to the desk once more, but this time Mina noticed. She turned and followed his gaze to the immaculate pink notebook sitting on top of the stack.

There was a moment of absolute stillness in the room. Inside his head, Izuku was screaming to himself. Part of him said to dive for the notebook and throw it out the window, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He had spent too long coveting that knowledge to let it go. It had practically hurt him physically when Bakugou had almost destroyed his notebook. He wouldn't go through that again.

Mina was going through her own internal debate. She was immensely interested in the notebook in question, if only because Izuku seemed hell bent on keeping her from seeing it. He was almost pathologically truthful in her experience, so his attempts to hide it piqued her interest. The other half of her was keenly aware that he had been keeping it from her, and trying to steal a peek was a quick way to end up on his bad side. She enjoyed teasing him, but not enough to hurt him like that.

"So, um it's g-getting pretty late, huh? Maybe we should head to bed?" Izuku said.

_Never mind. Now I gotta know_ Mina thought as she lunged for the notebook.

Izuku moved at the same time, but Mina had both a head start and a better position. She managed to snatch up the notebook moments before Izuku grabbed at her and sent the pair of them sprawling across the floor.

The sudden fall disoriented Izuku, and let Mina slip away easily. She dodged behind his desk chair, keeping it between the two of them as she flipped open the notebook. She needn't have bothered with the barrier. After she slipped out of his grasp, Izuku gave up on trying to stop her. He knew that she was going to get her way. He just wasn't sure if he was prepared for the fallout from it.

Mina was several pages into the notebook, and was very confused. She wasn't sure what she was expecting from the notebook when she had grabbed it, but so far it was very similar to the other notebooks that Izuku had freely shown her and their classmates. Pictures of her, usually in her hero costume were drawn on most of the pages, often focusing on a specific part of her outfit, with notes about the functionality and design, as well as how they could be improved. There were plenty of notes about her Quirk too. She skimmed past an entire page that seemed to be devoted to coming up with special move names. She even saw a few she had contemplated at one point or another.

"I don't get what you were so embarrassed about, Midori. This is all good stuff. I might even have to use some of these move names!"

She flipped the page once more, and paused. Once again, a sketch of her dominated the page, but this one was different. She was in her Gym uniform, smiling widely with her fingers on her forehead making pseudo-horns, like she often did with Kirishima. There were no notes on the page that she could see. Just the date in the upper corner. She vaguely recognized the moment as being a day or so before the USJ incident.

She turned the page again, and it was back to notes on her Quirk. She flipped a few more, passing notes about possible alterations to her costume in the winter, and stopped once again. Here was another noteless picture of her, drawn from behind as she stared at something in the distance, chin in her hand. It was in much finer detail than any of the previous drawings. It looked like he had spent a lot of time on it.

Then she realized something else. She was nearly a third of the way through the notebook, and had yet to see notes on anyone else, or their Quirks. Yaoyorozu had had the longest entry in the other notebook, at nearly ten pages talking theorizing about what materials she could make using her Quirk. She was now at nearly 30 pages. Ignoring the contents of the notebook, she flipped to the end. The last third was blank still, so she backtracked until she came to the last page where Izuku had made a drawing. It was her again, this time using Full Veil. He had done his best to capture the ethereal sparkles she tried as she moved. She noticed that his art skills had improved by leaps and bounds between the first drawings she had seen in his journals and this one. She checked the date, and found that he had made this today. Then she remembered him pulling out his notebook for a while during their training session. She checked the edge of the paper, and saw that he had taped it into the pink notebook after transferring it from the other.

"M-Midori am I the only one in this notebook?" She asked, voice hesitant.

"Y-yeah." He had moved to sit on his bed, but his face was turned down and away from her, which slightly muffled his words. "It started out like I said. I didn't have enough room in my other hero analysis book, so someone had to be seperate. I knew your entry was going to be long, so I put it in a new notebook. And then….. And then I kept going. I had fun drawing you for your entries, and thinking about your Quirk. And then I looked back through a few pages, and I realized it wasn't really a hero analysis book anymore. It was more of a Mina Ashido notebook" He flipped to a page towards the end of the notebook, marked with a tab.

It was a bust of her smiling straight ahead. It was by far the most detailed image she had seen so far. It looked like a perfect replica of her face, down to the individual strands of curly hair. There was even a chip missing from one of her horns in the picture, and Mina felt the chip unconsciously. She'd gotten it when she took a tumble a few years ago. It was small enough that she hadn't felt like it was worth the effort to fix, especially given it would grow out eventually. She was impressed that Izuku had noticed the detail.

Every part of her was there, rendered with loving detail. With a start, Mina realized that was exactly what it was. This wasn't some casual sketch that he had made in his spare time. He had obviously put a great amount of time and effort into the drawing. He cared a lot about making it look perfect. He cared a lot about making it look like her.

She could feel heat burning across her face, and her pulse picking up as she realized this.

"I...uhm...I...You…" She was stuttering almost as bad as Izuku when he was uncomfortable. This was unlike anything she had been expecting, and she wasn't really sure how to handle it.

It wasn't the first time someone had expressed romantic interest in her, but it was one of the more direct expressions of it. Even though Izuku hadn't intended to set her heart pounding, he had managed to do so astonishingly well.

_I need some air._ She thought to herself. _And someone's input. I gotta go find Toru right now!_

She walked past Izuku, who was still doing his best to look anywhere but at her.

"I'm… gonna go. I'll...uh...I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?"

"OK." His voice was almost completely flat as he responded.

The click of the door shutting behind her seemed to echo in Izuku's ears.

* * *

He sighed to himself, and put his face in his hands.

_That literally could not have gone worse. Why? Why didn't I bury that stupid notebook!?_

He barely even heard the door open again, but he did feel the pair of strong arms wrap around his shoulders a second later.

Mina gave him a squeeze, as hard as she could. Then she backed off, hovering near the door for a second.

"Good night Izuku." Her face was a lovely shade of lilac as she said it, and her voice wavered slightly, but she managed to get it out. She closed the door again, but this time the click seemed less like a final note, and more like a comma.

A pause between sentences.

* * *

A pair of eyes watched as Mina ran down the hallway, clutching a notebook to her chest. They didn't look away until the elevator door shut behind her.

They slowly slid behind the half opened door, and let it shut behind them.

The room was plainer than most would suspect. It was identical to Izuku's in layout, though there was no All Might merchandise to be seen. Instead a large computer was the most prominent decoration in the room, sitting at the center of the desk.

The boy who had been glaring a second ago pushed the computer aside, jiggling the mouse as he did so, which woke the computer. The desktop screen was a still image of the girls from class 1A in cheerleader outfits, taken during the school festival.

The boy glared at the image for several seconds, then pulled out a box from his desk. Inside it was an array of cloth pieces and various types of stuffing. He quickly pulled out a few pieces of fabric, and got to work combining them together.

In short order, a small doll sat before the boy, one which remarkably resembled Izuku Midoriya. The boy gazed at his handiwork for several seconds.

Then Minoru Mineta pulled out a pin and stabbed the doll, as he cursed Izuku for getting the cutest girl in the class.


	6. Life Comes at You Fast

"Oh my god! What did you say?" Hagakure asked, evidently hanging off Mina's every word. After leaving Izuku's room, Mina had taken the elevator straight to her friend's floor, and practically broke the door down knocking.

"I just told him good night. And gave him a hug."

"Awwww. No big line? No 'draw me like one of your French girls?" She was happy for her friend, but she still hungered for juicy news.

"I wasn't…" Mina started, then paused to try to gather her thoughts. "It was so different from anything I pictured. Like, I've seen tons of romance movies and I always love big romantic gestures. But when he showed me the picture it was just so sweet, and I couldn't think straight at all. It was just….." She blushed furiously. "It was really nice, OK?"

Hagakure jumped up from where she had been reclining on her bed and gave Mina a big hug.

"I'm so happy for you Mina. And I'm even happier we didn't have to push Midoriya into asking you out."

"We?" Mina asked, confused. She and Hagakure had never discussed anything like that. Her invisible friend had been careful about bringing up Izuku before today, trying to get Mina to realize her exact feelings without pushing too hard.

"Uraraka, Iida, Kirishima, and I. We had a chat earlier about trying to get you two together. We had a plan too. Though I'm still not sure where Uraraka was going to get a rowboat from."

"A rowboat?"

"Not important." Hagakure said, with a shake of her hands. "What is important is where we go from here. You and Midoriya like each other, obviously. But you two didn't make any plans for a date yet, right?"

Mina shook her head. "I told him we'd talk tomorrow. So…. I guess we'll figure it out then."

"Nuh uh. We should get started planning. The first date is important, so I want to help you make it as romantic as possible!" It went unstated that Hagakure would be privy to all the details afterward. Especially the romantic ones.

"Shouldn't Midori be the one to plan this out?"

Hagakure placed a hand on her shoulder. "Mina, I love you and respect your decisions wholeheartedly, but I saw Midoriya's room, and we've all seen his shirts. I hate to say it, but that boy has no sense of taste. If we leave this to him, you may end up at a Denny's."

Mina opened her mouth to object, then stopped. As much as she was loath to admit it, Hagakure had a point. Izuku's ridiculous T-shirts were charming, in an adorkable way, but they did leave one to wonder about his fashion sense. She had seen pictures of him in a suit from when he went to I-island earlier in the year, but even then he had looked a little….out of place. Although, he had been next to Todoroki and Iida so comparisons on dressing were little biased against him.

There was also the fact that his room looked like a booth from an All Might fan convention. Looking back, Mina realized that if she hadn't been so focused on Izuku, the number of All Might posters and figures staring at her would have been a bit awkward. She made a mental note that if they ended up in a relationship, she was never going to try to do anything romantic in his room.

It might not be rational, but a part of her felt like it would be like having Izuku's dad glaring disapprovingly at them the whole time.

"Ok, you might have a point." Mina conceded.

"I always do!" Hagakure pressed her fingers to her lips, her way of indicating a wide smile. "Now, call Uraraka and let's get planning!"

It was a very productive evening.

* * *

Izuku sat on his bed, dumbstruck. The past half hour had been an absolute emotional roller coaster for him, and he was still trying to process it.

When she had walked out the first time, it felt like his heart had dropped out of his chest and shattered. The only reason he hadn't broken down into tears when he had heard that click was a combination of mental discipline and shock. He had just been feeling the tell tale prickle in his eyes when she had come back in.

And then he didn't know what to feel. His hero instincts had kicked into alert at being suddenly grabbed, his romantic side was dancing for joy, and his socially anxious side was just ready to keel over from being hugged by a girl.

Mercifully, the contact had been brief, and Izuku had been on the verge of recovering his faculties, maybe even wishing her a polite goodbye.

Then she used his first name, and he lost any ability to function.

The door closed a second time, and he sat there for five minutes, mouth working soundlessly. Then, his brain started working again and he slid to the floor.

"O-oh my god. OH MY GOD. I- Did that really just happen?" He reached up and pinched his cheek as hard as he could. Nothing changed.

_Oh my god I think I just confessed to her _He thought, mind swinging back around to panic mode. Intellectually, he knew it wasn't as big of a deal as he was making it out to be. That didn't stop his racing mind though.

"I need some advice." He said, trying desperately to calm his heartbeat, and push back the fire from his cheeks.

He picked up his phone, and stared at it. He wasn't really sure who to call. Iida and Todoroki weren't exactly fountains of relationship knowledge or emotional expression. Uraraka was an excellent friend, and her female perspective might be handy, but he knew she would tease him about how worked up he was getting and that was not something he could handle right now.

He even briefly considered calling All Might, but decided against it. His mentor was an excellent hero, but his interpersonal skills left a lot to be desired. In fact, Izuku wasn't sure the man had ever been in a romantic relationship in his life.

In the end, there was really only one person he trusted in this sort of scenario.

Inko Midoriya picked up the phone on the second ring. After all the incidents at the school, she made sure to keep her phone on her at all times, with special ringtones for her son and for the school. It had gotten to the point where her stomach dropped whenever she heard that tone.

"Izuku, dear, are you alright? Did something happen?"

He didn't speak for a long moment, contemplating how to broach the topic. FInally, he decided to simply be as direct as possible. "Mom, I need your help with something."

"Oh Izuku!" Her voice was frantic. "Just tell me where you are. I'll have them send an ambulance and-"

"Mom! MOM! It's ok. It's not like that. I'm fine. Well, I mean I'm not hurt."

She was sniffling a bit, sure signs of an incoming tearful explosion, but his words seemed to get through to her. "Y-you're OK? Really?"

"I'm fine. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you, but I'm not really sure how to say this. I need some advice. And...well, it's…..it's about this girl… and I-"

"IZUKUUUUUUUUUU!"

He had to hold his phone away from his ear as his mother's sobs came through the speaker loud and clear. The adrenaline from her panicked assumption had mixed with her relief that her son was ok, and the sudden knowledge that her baby boy was growing up had served as the perfect catalyst to open the waterworks.

* * *

Ten minutes and a box and a half of tissues later, and Inko finally managed to calm down.

"I'm sorry Izuku, but you're growing up so fast. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks Mom."

"Now, what's happened between you and Ashido?"

Izuku froze. "I...how did…?"

She chuckled softly. "Dear, I was young once. I know what a crush looks like, especially when you used to bring her up whenever I ask you what happened at school. So, are you having trouble trying to confess to her?"

He smiled nervously. "Well…."

He relayed the events of the evening, then listened as his Inko sat in silence for several moments. Finally, she spoke.

"You've certainly had an eventful evening. I'm sorry you had such a rough time of it. That must have been tough, especially after the week you all have had."

"Yeah." He nodded. "It's been tough for everyone, I think. Even Mina is more subdued than usual. And now, I'm worried I just added to it. I mean, she hugged me, but…"

"Dear, I don't think you have anything to worry about. She sounds like a lovely girl from what you've told me. If I had to wager a guess at what she's feeling right now, I would say she's nervous, but excited and happy as well."

"You really think so?" Izuku had always trusted his mother's advice, but even still he wasn't totally sure.

"I do, because that's exactly how I felt when your father first confessed to me. And since it was in very similar circumstances, I feel fairly confident in saying so."

Izuku was taken aback. "What?"

"Oh I'm sure I've told you this story before dear."

"Could...could you tell me again. I don't really remember it."

Inko smiled at the excited nervousness in her son's voice. It really did take her back to when she had first met Hisashi.

"I was in my third year of highschool, and he was a senior. We had never spent all that much time together, just occasional meetings through a friend of a friend. I thought he was very handsome, but I had never put much thought into whether I liked him in that way. My best friend though, was always trying to set us up. They never really worked out though. I was always at home, taking care of my mother, and even back then Hisashi was always busy with something." She laughed to herself. "It seemed like he was a member of half the clubs on campus. He had so many friends too. People were always coming up to me and asking if I was the girl Hisashi was always talking about. I never really put two and two together from that."

"When it happened, it took both of us by surprise. One of the teachers asked me to take a form to the photography club for her. I didn't even know your father was involved with them at the time. When I got there, he was in the middle of developing some photos he had taken. He's a fan of classic techniques. He says that they make better quality photos."

"I was looking around at the photos he was hanging up, and I saw that I was in almost all of them. When I asked about it, he confessed. He said I was the most beautiful girl on campus, as perfect as a chrysanthemum. Then, he asked me out on a date, and I said yes. From then on, the rest is history." Inko's voice had taken on a wistful tone as she spoke, lost in the memories of happier times when Hisashi hadn't needed to go overseas for his work.

Izuku quietly contemplated the story he just heard. Maybe his mother was right. After all, Mina had come back after he'd shown her the picture. It might mean that….

He blushed furiously as the thought occurred to him.

_She might like me back!_

"Did that help Izuku?" His mother asked, and he realized she was still on the phone, waiting for him to respond.

"Y-Yeah. Thanks Mom."

"Of course, dear. Now, get a good night's sleep and then have a long chat with her tomorrow. You might be surprised to hear what she has to say. And be sure to bring her with you the next time you come home. I want to meet the girl who's stolen my boy's heart!"

"Mom!" He was red as a tomato at her words.

"Good night Izuku. I love you."

"Love you too, Mom."

He placed his phone beside his bed, flicked off the lights, and stretched out on his bed. It wasn't terribly late, but after the long day he was feeling pretty drained.

He closed his eyes, but instead of drifting off as his mind emptied, his traitorous thoughts kept drifting to Mina. They had spent almost the whole day together, between training, time in the common room, and the notebook incident. It was funny to think that less than a week ago they had just been passing friends, though he had been a friend with a massive crush that he could not get rid of. It was part of the reason why he had never done more to approach her. They had spent time together before, in training or on campus, but every time his thoughts had gotten in the way and made him too awkward to function.

He sighed to himself as memories of her thousand watt smile played behind his eyelids. And the more recent memory of her hug sent him further into the spiral of embarrassment and happiness.

It took him a long time to get to sleep that night, but when he did he happily dreamt of the lovely sunny day and an equally lovely girl.

* * *

"This is going to be one of those days, isn't it?" Izuku sighed to himself.

"Look on the bright side" Uraraka said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It could be worse. You could be up against Bakugou."

"The worst Kacchan can do is beat me." Izuku said, already sounding defeated. "But this. I'm not sure if it will make things better, or so much worse." He stared at the screen in front of them, where the matchups for today's hero training, one on one mock battles, were listed. Specifically, he was staring at the fourth matchup.

**IZUKU MIDORIYA VS MINA ASHIDO**

"Uraraka is right, Midoriya. This is nothing more than a training session to improve our abilities." Iida was as stoic as ever, apparently not even worried about his own match against Shoji. "Besides, I do not believe Ashido is the type to hold a grudge, especially if you give the battle your best effort!" His enthusiastic pat on the bat sent Izuku stumbling a bit.

"I-I know. I'm just worried. N-Not that I have any real reason to be worried!"

Uraraka grinned wickedly. "He's worried that he'll mess things up after he and Ashido had a moment last night."

Izuku's mouth dropped open in surprise. "H-how did you…?"

"Ashido told me. Hagakure knows too. We know ev...ry...thing…" She trailed off in a singsong tone as Izuku blushed.

"Congratulations Midoriya! I am pleased that your relationship with Ashido is progressing. However! Do not let it detract from your schoolwork. A hero must always go above and beyond!"

Izuku and Uraraka shook their heads. Iida was a good friend, but his overzealous personality could be a bit off putting at times.

"Anyways," Uraraka jumped in, doing her best to stay ahead of Iida. "Deku, when are you going to ask Ashido out?"

He spluttered at that. "I..uh...you don't...I mean she doesn't….we aren't...I couldn't…"

"Ok, let me rephrase." She said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're going to ask her out, and you're going to do it right after your match together. I'll help!" She said with a bright smile.

Izuku had one moment to utterly panic at what she meant by that before he was broken out of his train of thought.

"Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, let's get this started!" Present Mic called, silencing all other conversations. Ever since All Might's retirement, their various teachers had stepped in to cover for him during the more intense hero training sessions, as well as when there was a possibility of one of the teachers needing to step in.

Only silence greeted their over enthusiastic teacher, but he didn't let that stop him.

"For our first match, we have Kirishima vs Mineta! Can Kirishima top his own Quirk, or will it prove too tough for him? Let's find out!"

* * *

The first three matches were quick. The student's control over their new Quirks was still spotty, and they lacked crucial experience, so it often came down to hand to hand combat, with a clear winner emerging within a few short minutes.

In no time at all, Izuku found himself standing on the opposite side of the ring from Mina. The ring was a smaller, less elaborate version of the sports festival combat arena. There was still plenty of room to move around without going out of bounds, but the smaller ring definitely made a long range strategy much more difficult.

Across the ring, Mina dropped into a ready stance and grinned at Izuku. "Ready for me to hand you your butt, Midori?"

"As I'll ever be." Izuku sighed as he dropped into his own stance. The concrete was cold against his bare feet. Unlike Mina, he didn't have special boots to allow him to secret acid from his feet if he needed to slide. He was risking getting his toes trampled, but figured the extra mobility would more than make up for the risk.

_This won't be easy. My best chance is to stay at range, sliding for mobility where I can, and try to force her out of bounds. I'll open with a salvo to either side of her. She'll be expecting a frontal attack, so maybe I can throw her off balance early. _

With his attack plan set, he readied his mind to act and waited for the signal to begin.

"**START!"**

His plan went to hell in less than a second. Instead of to the sides like he had predicted she would, Mina raised both arms in front of her to block any incoming shots and charged straight at him. As she ran, the telltale sparkles of Full Veil began to dance along her body, leaving a faintly glowing trail behind her.

Izuku could barely hear the sounds of surprised whispers from the rest of the class at Mina's transformation. Hagakure was the only one who had been able to catch a glimpse of the ability before now. Most were simply impressed by the showy visuals, but the real combat experts in the class, like Bakugou and Todoroki noticed the more subtle signs that revealed the true significance of the technique.

Izuku didn't have time to be impressed. He lunged to the side to avoid her charge, letting acid flow freely from his feet, and beginning to slide away. Mina slid to a stop just past where he had just been, and whirled to face him. Her grin had grown even more confident. Less than 30 seconds had elapsed, and he was already on the defensive.

_Gotta gain some distance _He thought to himself. He gathered acid in the palms of his hands, and hurled it at the pink girl. He didn't have Mina's aim, so he took a more widespread approach, letting the acid spray across a wider area.

Mina didn't even flinch. She twisted around every drop with inhuman grace and charged once more. As she leapt over the acid trails Izuku had left behind as he slid, an idea occurred to him. He hurled another glob of acid directly in her path. She leapt over it, which only slowed her down a little bit, but confirmed Izuku's theory.

_She still hasn't gotten her balance down right! _He remembered her telling him about it yesterday. Full Veil seemed to improve her sense of balance, but the change was still disorienting to her, particularly on uneven surfaces. She tended to over-correct and made the problem worse, which only compounded on itself.

_Here goes nothing! _He summoned more acid, and began liberally spraying it behind him as he skated away, trying to cover as much of the arena as possible in a slippery coating.

* * *

_Guess he remembered that _Mina thought to herself. Being able to hide her lack of confidence in her balance had been a long shot. Even if he hadn't remembered her mentioning it yesterday, he was so damn good at analysis that he would have worked it out on his own eventually.

_Plan B it is then_

She jumped backwards, away from where Izuku was coating the ground in a layer of acid. She could tell he was using a very low corrosive variety, probably trying not to get scolded for dissolving the ring. Instead of moving towards her opponent, Mina simply waited for the inevitable.

He noticed her shifting to a defensive strategy, but not in time. As he cocked his arm back, preparing to hurl a blast of acid at her from range, she saw a subtle tensing in his eyes, and she knew that this was her chance.

Izuku had not had nearly as much experience with Acid as Mina had. Consequently, he didn't know his limits nearly as well as she knew hers. Nor did he know the consequences of going past them. She smiled to herself as she remembered the long hours at the summer training camp, before the villain attack, that she had spent expanding her acid slinging capacity. At the time, she had cursed her teachers for subjecting her to so much torture. Now, she felt an odd urge to go give Aizawa a big hug.

And not just because his reaction would be amazing.

As Mina watched, Izuku's arm trembled from a sudden onset of stinging pain that accompanied the overuse of Acid. He dropped the acid ball he had been forming, and for just a moment, his balance faltered.

Mina pushed the extra power into her legs, feeling the bones and muscles creak in protest as they were made to endure much more force than usual. Thankfully, her long hours of dancing and hero training had given her powerful and durable leg muscles.

_Huh, _she thought to herself, _Guess the internet was right. Thick thighs really do save lives_

Then she leapt as high as she could, a sparkling ballistic missile on a direct course for her target.

* * *

Izuku felt a pain start shooting through his arms. He was used to enduring intense pain, but given that a lot of it was self inflicted he was also used to knowing when it would start. The sudden throb caught him completely off guard.

He fumbled the acid ball he was forming, and struggled to recover it. It burst against the already acid covered ground before he could recover it, and he silently cursed himself. He'd let himself forget the consequences of overusing Mina's Quirk.

His gaze snapped back towards where the pink girl had been standing a moment before, then his eyes widened. She appeared to have vanished, which concerned him greatly. If she managed to close the distance, he was in a big disadvantage in a hand to hand fight right now.

He looked around furiously, but didn't see hide nor horn of his opponent. He had about half a second to ponder how a sparkling pink horned girl could vanish so thoroughly before he heard her voice coming from above him.

"**Sparkle**….!"

His eyes snapped upwards just in time to see a pair of yellow and burgundy boots on a direct impact course with his head. He stumbled back, trying to dodge, but found his own acid defense working against him. His feet slipped out from under him, and he felt himself start to fall backwards as Mina hurtled towards him.

"**Meteor!**"

She slammed into his chest, and Izuku bounced off of the acid covered concrete. He came to a rest, just inside of the ring, very dazed from the impact. He struggled to stand back up, but didn't make much progress.

Mina was on him a moment later. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and started pushing him out of bounds. She had let Full Veil fall away just before she had landed, not wanting to cause too much damage to Izuku.

He did his best to resist, but she was quickly winning. He slid ever closer to the edge of the arena. Then, he pulled a desperate move.

He pushed acid with what he hoped was a level of corrosion that would sting Mina's arms but not do any lasting harm out of his arms and shoulders. His arms stung furiously at the acidic emission, but he pushed the pain away through force of will.

Mina yelped as she got an armload of stinging acid. She quickly let go and jumped back. She nearly fell, but managed to stay upright.

As she did so, Izuku managed to bring himself back from the brink of defeat. He shook off the last of his dizziness, and readied himself for an exchange of blows. Then he realized the consequence of his last ditch defense.

The acid he had released was enough to cause Mina some pain, but not enough to do lasting damage. It was, however, apparently corrosive enough to dissolve a good chunk of his gym shirt. As he shifted into a combat stance, the last thread holding it together snapped, and his shirt slid off of him entirely.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment. Izuku stared at Mina, a blush flaming in his cheeks, but not willing to drop entirely out of combat mode. Mina stared as well, through her eyes did flick downward for a moment. When they came back up, there was a faint lilac tint in her cheeks, and her eyes were wider than before, but she too was unwilling to be distracted from the current match, even with her very shirtless and **very **well muscled crush standing in front of her.

Then someone wolf whistled and Izuku lost his composure. He ducked his head, too embarrassed to function. Later, Mina would feel bad for taking advantage of the moment. At the time, however, she only saw an opening, one which she took with great enthusiasm.

She shoulder charge Izuku, and he flew backwards out of the ring.

"**And the match is over!**" Present Mic's voice rang out over the class. "**Mina Ashido is the winner!**"

Izuku grunted as he hauled himself into a sitting position. He checked himself over mentally for any significant damage. His arms stung, and his chest was throbbing from the drop kick, but he didn't feel any broken bones. If there was one upside to his self destructive behavior from when he had first gained One for All, it was that breaking and healing many of the bones in his body had helped him gain a decent amount of bone density.

"You OK Midori?" Mina asked, coming over to where he sat. Her lower arms were a slightly darker pink color than usual, which Izuku realized must have been from when she had come into contact with his acid attack at the end.

"Y-Yeah. N-Nothing broken anyways. Are your arms ok?"

She stared at them for a moment, then nodded. "Yep! Feels like when I overuse Acid, but it's not bad. I'll be back to tip top shape in no time!" She held out a hand to help him up, and he took it gratefully.

After pulling him to his feet, Mina placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Speaking of tip top shape..." This time, her glance towards his chest and abs was much more significant, and much longer. "How much did you have to work to get those?" Her blush was evident, staining her face a vibrant lilac, even as she teased him.

Izuku felt like he might be able to compete with Todoroki when it came to generating heat. In fact, it was amazing he hadn't managed to spontaneously combust.

He spun away from her, in an effort to contain his embarrassment. "A-a-a year or so" he managed to stutter out, now that he couldn't see her face. It was a shame he missed her reaction. Her mouth dropped open in shock, and her eyes grew even wider than before.

_What kind of training did he __**do**__? _She wondered to herself. She couldn't imagine the kind of effort and dedication it would take to get those results in that short a time.

As Mina pondered, Izuku took a moment to raise his head, and realized he was now facing their class. Aizawa stood in front, next to Present Mic, shaking his head tiredly. No doubt Izuku would be getting a lecture on overdoing things and ruining outfits.

Behind him, Kirishima, Kaminari, and surprisingly Ojiro were clapping. Bakugou looked furious as always, though Yaoyorozu was doing her best to placate him. Mineta glared openly. Iida was shaking his head as well, and Izuku wondered if he would be able to survive a double barreled lecture.

Then he saw Uraraka. She stood with her arms crossed and an eyebrow quirked. When their eyes met, she pulled up her arm and deliberately tapped on her wrist, right where a watch would sit. Izuku got the message loud and clear.

He turned, facing Mina once more. Her eyes were slightly glazed as she stared into space. Her hair was in complete disarray, even more than usual. Parts of it stuck up in strange formations, and there were a few patches that had been smoothed down and stuck to her head by sweat. A few holes marked her uniform where small drops of acid he had hurled her way had gotten on her clothing.

_Damn, _he thought to himself, _she really is the cutest girl i've ever met._

"M-M-Mina…"

His words broke Mina out of her trance. "Huh? Sorry Midori. What did you just say?"

"I-I was...I was wondering if...uh...if you would like to...uh...maybe you would like...to do something...this weekend? With me?"

"Izuku…" She said slowly, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"I...uh...y-yes."

She smiled at that. His voice had barely been above a mumble, and he looked like he might have a heart attack at any moment, but he had done it. He had asked her out.

She felt like she could just burst into song right then and there.

"I'd love to!" She exclaimed.

In that moment, Izuku felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. After months of crushing on his classmate, he had finally taken a step closer to her. And all it had taken was a fistfight to get them there.

* * *

The pair of students were smiling like crazy as they joined back up with their classmates. Most simply wrote it off as post battle adrenaline, though Hagakure and Uraraka exchanged a surreptitious high five when no one was looking.

As the arena was cleared up and the next match began, both Izuku and Mina found their thoughts drifting ahead to the weekend, and wondering what lay in store for them.


	7. The Best Laid Plans

"Ready to go?" Mina asked. She had taken the date as a chance to dress up, wearing a loose white shirt that she had tied at her hip, pulling it up slightly to expose a strip of pink beneath the hem. She had a pair of fashionably ripped jeans and surprisingly practical boots. Her outfit was mostly about fashion, but the boots were insurance against their class's notorious bad luck with villain attacks. A pair of garnet earrings and purse completed the ensemble.

Izuku had thankfully abandoned his usual T-shirts, in favor of a checkered green shirt and jacket combo. He hadn't abandoned his ubiquitous red boots though. Apparently there were some lines he was unwilling to cross, even for a beautiful girl.

"You still haven't told me where we're going" Izuku pointed out.

"That's for me to know, and you to be amazed by! Now, come on!" She had already started walking, and beckoned Izuku to follow her.

He sighed. He may have been the one to propose this date, but Mina had made it very clear that she would be the one in charge of planning. He couldn't really blame her. She had been the one to organize their class's last outing, which had been great fun up until the end.

He had complete faith in her ability to plan exciting and engaging parties. That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't extrodinarily nervous about what her idea of an 'exciting' date might entail. The fact that she was chomping at the bit to get going was definitely making him sweat a little.

Admittedly, he'd been doing a lot of sweating during the past two days.

Before he'd asked Mina out, he would have said that building up the courage to ask her was going to be the hardest part of the whole process. It had only been after he asked that he'd realized the true torture would be waiting for the actual date.

They had settled on Friday as the day for their date. Theoretically, their Quirks would be returning to them on Saturday, so UA was giving them an entire day off. That left Friday evening totally clear, and with no need to worry about staying out late. They'd even gotten permission from Aizawa to extend their curfew a few hours, though the withering stare he'd laid on them when they asked had taken a few years off of Izuku's life.

Wednesday had been difficult for Izuku. Time had seemed to stretch on and on, his teachers words blurring together as he stared down the clock, willing time to run faster and bring him to Friday even a bit sooner. His notes, which were difficult to parse at the best of times had become so illegible that he'd had to borrow Todoroki's.

But Wednesday had had nothing on Thursday, because that had been when the doubt had set in. His rampant anxiety fed off of itself, leading him down countless scenarios where it was revealed that Mina had been pranking him, or that she had misunderstood and he was about to make a fool of himself thinking their friendly outing was a date. The logical part of his brain pointed out how unlikely either of these scenarios was, but it was drowned out by the screaming of his anxious side as it grabbed the controls of his brain and sent it spiraling down increasingly unlikely scenarios.

Honestly, he probably wouldn't have made it without becoming a nervous wreck if it hadn't been for his friends. They'd kept him from going off the deep end, always willing to lend a friendly ear or some comforting words. Uraraka had scolded him a couple of times for being a "ridiculous drama queen", which had felt a little harsh at times, but had been what he needed to hear.

Flipping back and forth between anxiousness and elation had been exhausting, and had made the past two days seem to drag by like they were stuck in molasses, but he had somehow managed to survive. Now all he had to do was make it through the date itself without horrifically embarrassing himself.

He was startled from his reflection when Mina grabbed firmly onto his arm, and clung tightly to him.

"M-M-Mina! What are you-"

"You were off in your own little world, Midori, and I won't stand for it!" She flashed him a mischievous grin. "Soooo, if I can't keep your attention with words, I'll have to do it with action!"

Mina may not be the most book smart member of their class, but she had always had a way with people. She had no trouble making friends, no matter where she went. Mostly this was due to her ability to read people and get what they were feeling underneath. She knew Izuku had been feeling nervous about this date. She didn't blame him. She had been feeling quite nervous herself.

However, as they were walking, she had come to a decision. She and Izuku were going to have a wonderful time on their date, so much so that he would have to ask for another the minute it was over. But, to do that, she needed to keep him from getting too far into his own head. She needed a shot across the bow, and for Izuku the best way to do that was physical contact.

So she clung to him like a burr as they walked. And she could see it working. He was red in the face, but he had stopped muttering to himself, and was even laughing at the dumb jokes she was making. She smiled proudly at her accomplishment . It had taken her less than ten minutes to break him out of his awkward shell.

Now all she had to do was let the date play out, and things were sure to progress excellently.

* * *

"Tah-Dah!" Mina said, brandishing their movie tickets. She had put a lot of thought into what movie they were going to see before finally stumbling across the perfect choice.

The theater they were at was an obscure place the mostly just showed artsy movies that she didn't have any real interest in. The only reason she had checked it in the first place was when she confused it for another theater. It had, however, been an amazing stroke of luck, and she had jumped on the tickets as soon as she saw them. The movie was a pseudo documentary about Valkria, the first female hero to make a big impact in the hero world. The actors in it were even pretty good. Mina had seen the leading actress in a few movies, and always enjoyed her style. Izuku, she knew, would love the hero history aspect of it, while she enjoyed the people. It might not be something she would normally go see, but she was sure she would find plenty to enjoy.

The sheepish look on Izuku's face gave her pause. When he had seen the movie name on the tickets, his eyes had immediately dropped away from her.

"What's up Midori?" she asked.

"I...uh….I kind of….saw it already"

Mina froze. She hadn't even considered that. Of course he had seen it, being such a big hero nerd. She berated herself internally for overlooking something so obvious.

"Oh. I'm sorry Midori. Maybe we can switch to something else?" She did some calculations for their time. Changing to a different movie probably wouldn't muck up their schedule too badly…

"It's OK." he said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't want to mess things up. And, uh, I can't say any of the other movies here really appeal to me." He said, glancing at the posters that covered the walls. Mina had to agree with him there.

"Besides," he continued, "The movie wasn't too bad. They got some stuff right."

She quirked a brow at that, but decided to soldier on. After all, how bad could it be?

* * *

"Midori, I think you and I have very different ideas about what makes a bad movie." Mina said, as they exited the theater.

He laughed nervously. The movie had been truly terrible. It had been made on what seemed to be a shoestring budget, which was very apparent in both the special effects and the costumes.

They had also taken more than a few liberties with history. Instead of an inspiring tale of a woman fighting for respect in a world that refused to believe that she could be as tough as anyone else, it had been told as the worst kind of romance story with another hero that Izuku had informed her was widely speculated to have been rather flamboyantly gay.

In fact, his comments during the movie had been the only thing that has kept Mina from standing up and walking out after the first half hour. They had been the only ones in the theater, apparently everyone else had gotten the memo about the movie sucking royally, so they hadn't felt any need to keep quiet. Izuku had pointed out the many, many inaccuracies, most of which he knew off the top of his head. He had confessed that he had always found Valkyria's story inspiring when he was training to get into UA.

Mina understood what he meant. She could only imagine what it had been like for him, training every day to get into the most competitive school in the country with a Quirk he could only barely control, one that shattered his body with every use.

Someday, she thought to herself, someone was going to make a story about his life, and how hard he had worked to get where he was. She smiled to herself as she imagined some poor actor having to play her in the story and cursing her while applying liberal amounts of body paint.

She grabbed Izuku's arm once again as they exited the theater, and steered him towards their next destination, pleased to find that he only blushed a little at the sudden contact.

* * *

The restaurant was lovely. It had a pleasant atmosphere, halfway between 'upscale chick and homey charm. It was also a favorite of the locals. Every table Mina could see was filled, and many of the occupants were obviously couples. When Hagakure had suggested it she had said it would be "Perfect for setting the mood".

_Perfect. _She thought. After the fiasco with the movie, now was the perfect time to bring some romance to the date. Who knows, maybe if she played her cards right, Izuku might make it through a hug without blushing.

"Name?" the bored sounding hostess asked.

"Ashido." Mina said. She had never liked people who acted like thief job was beneath them, and this woman was already getting on her frayed nerves.

The hostess glanced at her reservation book, then looked back up. "I don't have anything under that name".

Mina felt her eye twitch.

"Can check again?" She said, in a saccharine sweet tone. "We have a reservation in 15 minutes."

"Yeah, I've got nothing. All the reservations have already checked in."

Mina started to swell in anger, then just as quickly deflated. Getting angry wouldn't help. Heck, it would probably just make things worse. Instead, she grabbed Izuku by the arm, and walked out of the restaurant.

They were starting to head down the street when a voice came from behind them.

"Wait up for a moment!" One of the waiters had come out of the restaurant.

"Is everything ok?" Izuku asked.

"I just wanted to apologize for her." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the restaurant. "Somehow this stuff always seems to happen when she's working. But you two looked pretty put out, so I thought I'd try to make it up to you." He held out a scrap of paper with an address written on it.

"My buddy runs a shop a few blocks down the road. Tell him Aki sent you, and he'll give you a good deal. I know it's not really a perfect substitute. Sorry." He scratched his head awkwardly.

"It's very kind of you." Izuku said, accepting the paper.

Aki bowed slightly. "Hope your evening gets better!" He called as he returned to the restaurant.

"What do you think Mina?" Izuku asked, turning to her. "Want to look around for somewhere else to eat, or try the place he recommended?"

Mina let out a long breath, trying to let the stress that was building up inside her out.

"Let's go see what the friend's place is like.

* * *

It turned out to be a quaint little stand that was tucked just slightly out of sight of the main street. As they approached, the delicious smells emanating from it sent both Mina and Izuku's stomachs growling. Neither of them had had much to eat that day, and between their training earlier in the day, and the late hour, they were both starving.

The shop owner was a middle aged man who greeted them jovially, even more so when he heard who had sent them.

In a stroke of fortune, he'd just finished a batch of Katsudon, which had some pieces slightly overdone. Since he couldn't really serve it in good consciousness, he offered it to the pair for free. Izuku was practically drooling as he saw the order steaming faintly in front of them.

It lifted Mina's spirits a little to see how happy it made him.

The stall owner wrapped it up for them, then sent them on their way as he prepared for the oncoming dinner rush. They took their meal back onto the main thoroughfare and sat side by side, munching on thier, admittedly quite good, meal while they watched the crowd before them.

Many companies were starting to let off for the evening, which meant the street was bustling.

They made a game of picking out people from the crowd and making up ridiculous life stories for them. Mina was surprised how easily Izuku took to the activity. She had proposed it mainly as a way to pass the time, but Izuku proved quite adept. He had a talent for understated hyperbole that made her giggle.

For her part, Mina made up elaborate and tangled relationships, full of star crossed lovers and fated unions. Halfway through their meal, Mina realized the subtext was flying right over Izuku's head. She didn't care too much though. He was laughing at her antics, and that was good enough for the moment.

* * *

Mina's mood was considerably lower than when they had started the date, but she was doing her best to push through, as they came to their last planned destination, and Mina's last hope for salvaging the disaster of a date.

Ahead of them, Mustafu central park was bathed in golden light as the sun began its inevitable descent. Despite the beautiful visual, Mina kept her eyes firmly on the ground. A ridiculous part of her hoped that if she kept her eyes averted until the last second she could trick the universe into letting things work out.

She should have known better.

"Uhhh, Mina….." Izuku said hesitantly. His comforting presence at her side had been the only thing that had kept Mina from packing up before now. She wanted to have a pleasant evening with a cute boy, was that really too much to ask?

The entrance to the park was roped off, and a sign hung declaring the park "Closed for Villain clean up".

Mina kicked the ground viciously. She hadn't used even a scrap of One for All, so all the blow really did was scuff her shoes, but it did make her feel slightly better.

She turned to lead, and Izuku followed, neither of them saying anything. Mina's steps were slow, and her head hung down. It broke Izuku's heart to see her like this.

He shifted his arm in her grip, and threaded his fingers through hers, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as he did so. The corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly as he did so, and Izuku felt the weight on his heart lift slightly. He might not have been in on the planning of the date, but he felt responsible for so many things going pear shaped.

As they continued their walk back to the UA campus, something caught his eye. A lone newspaper stand stood outside a store, most of the issues long sold. The one that remained was a local tabloid, notorious for such crackpot pieces as "Secret Quirk stealing Villain controls Japan!" and "Endeavour's secret Villain love child!"

The eye catch for this issue was a piece about a local mystery, the spontaneous cleaning of Dagobah beach, claiming the cause was an as yet unknown hero hell bent on cleaning up the streets of Mustafu city.

Izuku smiled as the piece's not quite accurate conclusion gave him a burst of inspiration.

"Mina, how much time do we have before we need to head back?"

She startled at the sudden question, then frowned. "Umm, about an hour till it gets dark, and 2 till curfew. Why?"

His grin widened, previously absent energy filling him again. "I've got somewhere I want to visit. Come on!"

He tugged her along, taking the lead for the first time in the he pulled her along, Mina felt herself blushing a bit. She hadn't been focusing on it, too lost in her own spiral of negative thoughts, but now she was enjoying having Izuku grip her hand.

It wasn't that it was the first time she had held hands with a boy, even one she had a crush on. It was just… different with Izuku. More intense somehow.

She smiled too, some of the enthusiasm from earlier coming back to her as they marched along. It definitely hadn't been part of her plans, but maybe things would be good nonetheless.

They made it about half way to their destination before disaster struck.

* * *

Tamura Minami was not the smartest man alive, but he made up for his mental failings by being big and mean. It usually got him what he wanted, be it respect, women, or in the case of today, money.

He was a criminal, almost as common as they come. His crew was small and not very skilled, but they managed to get enough to scrape by. But Minami had always aspired to something greater. So, when one of his crew had proposed they rob a local jewelry store which had taken a little too long depositing their earnings, Minami jumped at the chance to enter the big leagues.

He had spent the past two days in a state of nervous excitement. He pictured his name in the papers, with maybe a grainy surveillance video shot of him as he grinned in triumph.

_Hmmmph, _he had thought to himself, _Those 'League of Villains' poseurs won't be the only ones in the news now. Maybe they'll even come crying to me for help when they're all eating nothing but crumbs. A REAL villain knows how to make some cash._

His plans set, his goals clear, and his head firmly in the clouds, Minami had taken his small crew and set his plan in motion. The first half of the plan ever worked out well for him. He and his crew entered the store, which was nearly empty at the time, and wasted no time intimidating both employees and customers. Minami's own strength enhancement Quirk helped tremendously with this, as he lifted the safe the money was kept in and hurled it at the floor until it cracked open.

The feat left him sweaty, but exhilarated. The money that poured out of the broken safe left him ecstatic.

He burst from the store in a shower of glass. One of his crew had a minor ability to hear radio signals, so they knew there weren't any heroes in the area. That meant Minami had plenty of time to show off. He flexed, letting the threads of his shirt crackle with strain as his muscles bulged. He might not have the level of musculature someone like All Might had sported, but he cut a decently impressive figure.

The surrounding street held a few people, for which he was very glad. There wasn't any point to a grand debut if there was not audience to appreciate it after all.

"Ya'll best run and hide behind your mama's skirts, because Skull Crusher is here, and I'm ready to live up to my name!"

Minami laughed as he took in the reactions of those around him. Several people had shrunk back in fear, and an old man on the opposite side of the street looked like he was ready to have a heart attack.

Then he noticed something strange. A few paces down the road was a young couple, with the boy desperately trying to hold his pink girlfriend back. It wasn't any use. She pulled free as Minami watched and began to walk towards him. His eyes widened in excitement. His first big job ever, and some teenager was already throwing herself at him.

"What's up girly? Like what you see?" He flexed even more, trying to emphasize his chest. "I don't usually mix business and pleasure, but for you, I think I can make an exception." He let his eyes drift up and down her as he spoke, enjoying the panicked mutterings of her, he presumed now Ex, boyfriend.

She smiled sweetly at him, and made a beckoning gesture. He leaned down, already puckering his lips.

He heard one of his crew let out a cry of alarm a second before a sparkling pink fist made direct contact with his jaw

* * *

There was a moment where no one moved. The civilian's eyes were flicking back and forth between the group of villains, all of whom had now emerged from the jewelry store and were preparing to fight, and the two teenagers who were standing before the rather intimidating group and somehow showing no fear, as though they had seen villains before and weren't particularly impressed by this lot.

The villains were assessing these new arrivals. They were too young to be proper heroes, and their clothes were for fashion rather than protection or combat. Still, neither of them had run when the group had pulled their various weapons or activated their Quirks. So, they were either fools, or more competent than they appeared. Those with combat oriented Quirks readied them for use, while those without pulled various weapons from where they had stashed them. Minami, for his part, was doing his best to shake off a concussion. He managed to make it back to his feet, thanks to the enhanced durability his Quirk afforded him, but he was still shaky, and not nearly as talkative as he had been a minute before.

Mina and Izuku had fallen into the combat mindset that UA had drilled into them. Even from a glance, they could tell these guys weren't anywhere near the level of a group like the League of Villains, but that was no reason to throw caution to the wind. Mina started to drop back, instincts telling her to get range and prepare to lob acid, when Izuku placed a hand on her shoulder. A hand that tingles slightly against her skin.

Mina cursed internally. This might be a unique circumstance, but making a foolish mistake like that in the field some day could be dangerous. She let Izuku step behind her, keeping slightly to her left, as she dropped into a fighting stance. Throughout the exchange, she had kept constant eye contact with the criminals, not giving them a chance to launch a surprise attack.

Minami made the first move, shaking off the last of the blurriness from his vision, and charging directly at the two young heroes. They both kept aside, Izuku kicking off his shoes as he did so. Minami was faster than his bulk would imply, and Izuku wanted to be able to move freely.

"Keep the big guy busy!" Mina shouted. "I'll get the rest!" She ran toward the rest of the criminals. As she did so, she let the warm power of Full Veil fill her body. Her Veil might not lend her the same level of strength as Izuku's Cowl, but it would be of great use in the battle. It increased her strength and durability, as well as greatly increasing her balance, speed, and reaction time. She was going to dance around the bastards who had interrupted her and Izuku.

One of the criminals met her charge, a short man who had grown larger and whose skin had taken on a gravely appearance when he used his Quirk. He had pulled out a oversized bat, and swung it over his head like a mallet.

Mina dodged to the side, and landed a quick blow to his kidneys as he struggled to regain his balance. The blow didn't do much good, his Quirk seemed to lend him quite a bit of toughness, and Mina was preparing to go for another, harder strike when she was forced to move backward by a hail of icicles. They pinged off of her opponent, though a few flew past him and stuck into the wall of the next building.

Reprioritizing, Mina jumped at the ice Quirk user. He was busy emptying a water bottle, converting it into more ice spikes. As she approached, he threw the ones he had created at her, using his Quirk to push them away from him for more force. They were fast, but after spending so long training near Todoroki the spikes were simple to dodge.

Her blow struck the man directly in the solar plexus, and he stumbled back wheezing. He took two steps away, tripped over a fallen bag of loot, and fell on his behind. This, apparently, was the final straw for him. He raised his hands in surrender, before lowering one to clutch his aching ribs.

Mina grinned, eyeing the three who remained. The gravely man was eyeing her warily as he stood between her and the other two, a girl with big leathery ears that were constantly moving and a gangly teenager who reminded her strangely of Kaminari with a blue streak running through his otherwise black hair.

Mina remembered that there had been a fourth criminal, another woman. She glanced around, and saw a crimson blur streaking towards her just a moment before a fist slammed into her chest with tremendous force. She flew backwards and slammed into the wall of a convenience store. She dimly heard a shriek from inside the store, no doubt some civilian who had taken refuge inside when the fighting started.

Her back ached massively and she felt slightly off kilter, but Mina had managed to avoid taking a head injury in the exchange. She picked herself up, wincing slightly at the pain. Shed certainly be feeling this tomorrow, but it wasn't nearly the worst injury shed gotten.

_Hell, _she thought, _Its not even the worst injury I've had this week_

Her opponents starred in amazement and fear as the pink girl stood up after being smashed into a concrete wall, dusted herself off slightly, then returned to her fighting stance. They realized then that they may have bitten off more than they could chew.

Mina started forward, then fell to her knees as a horrendous sound washed over her. From behind the gravely man, the large eared woman had opened her mouth and let loose a scream that was like nails on a chalkboard magnified 1000 times.

_Bat Quirk _Mina thought grimly as the woman paused for breath. _Not as strong as Present Mic but…._ She winced as pain ran through her ears once more, and she felt a drop of something warm hit her palm.

Despite the pain, she kept her eyes on her opponents, and was grateful to see that none of them had thought to wear earplugs. The other three criminals were also doubled over in pain, clutching at their ears.

_That's what you get for having terrible teamwork _she thought to herself.

Mina's mind was racing, trying to come up with a way to take the woman out of the fight. Her best bet, she decided, was to try and attack between screams, hoping she recovered faster than the bruisers on the other side did.

The bat woman was reaching the end of her air supply, bending forward slightly as she tried to squeeze out the last of her air. The woman's eyes widened as she met Mina's gaze. The girl's otherworldly gaze was filled with pain, but a spark of defiant determination still burned there. The woman remembered seeing eyes like that, pure black sclera with a core of burning color. She wracked her brain furiously, trying to think of where she had seen eyes like that before.

She felt her will to fight shatter like glass when she did remember.

_She has eyes like All Might! _The woman realized. And with that, she turned to flee, trying desperately to keep her scream going as long as she could to buy her some distance.

Her scream choked off as a glob of ooze hit her squarely in the face, filling her mouth. She retched violently, spilling white goo all over the pavement.

With the scream cut off, Mina spared a glance towards the source of the goo. Izuku still had a hand to his head, but he had a confident grin on his face. His outstretched hand dripped with the very diluted acid he had splashed the woman with. Behind him, Minami was flat on the ground with his limbs pinned down by exceptionally gooey acid. It looked like a variation of her Acid Veil technique, and Mina made a mental note to ask Izuku to teach her the viscosity combination he had used. That could be very useful for capturing criminals in the future.

She turned back to her opponents, who were now looking decidedly worried about their chances. Again though, the speedster had slipped away while Mina was distracted. She felt the woman slam into her back once more, but this time the speedy woman held on, rather than landing a simple blow. Apparently, the woman had decided to take a hostage.

"Wrong move!" Mina shouted. She squatted down as far as she could, pulling the woman slightly forward and ruining her balance. Then, Mina forced power into her legs and leapt into the air. The two of them rocketed up together, easily clearing the roofs around them, before gravity inevitably took hold of them once again.

Mina twisted, putting the speedster beneath her as they plummeted down. She heard her opponent shriek in distress as she realized what was about to happen, but it was far to late. They smashed into the pavement, cracking it slightly with the impact. The speedster took the entire brunt of the fall, as well as the weight of Mina coming down on top of her.

Mina felt the arms around her go slack as the woman slid into unconsciousness. She leapt up and away, ready to intercept another surprise attack.

While she had been in the air, Izuku had come forward, ready to help her out against the remaining opponents. Now, they stood side by side, breathing heavily and slightly worse for the wear, but both ready to keep fighting till the bitter end.

Mina glanced at Izuku, and saw that he had a grin plastered on his face, one which she could tell didn't quite reach his eyes. She chuckled silently. No doubt he was trying to channel All Might's signature smile.

Taking her cue from him, Mina let a smile cross her face. However, rather than channeling All Might like Izuku, Mina decided to pull from her classmate's style. She set a wicked smile that was very reminiscent of Bakugou on her face, and narrowed her eyes in a look that was incredibly intimidating. Their aggressive classmate may have had the anti-hero aesthetic on lock, but the rest of the class had been taking notes on how an intimidating gaze could be very effective in battle.

The remaining criminals stared at the pair for a long moment, then glanced at each other. A silent conversation seemed to pass between them for a moment, then in unison they sat down and put their hands behind their heads.

Mina and Izuku blinked in surprise. They were used to their fights going until one party was rendered unable to fight. It had been a long time since an opponent had surrendered outside of training matches. Slowly they relaxed from their combat mentality, and began to asses the situation at hand. Izuku moved behind their opponents, locking their hands behind them with more of the quick drying gel he had used previously.

Around them, civilians emerged from their various hiding places. They were surveying the damage that had been done during the fight, which was surprisingly minimal. There were some cracks in the convenience store wall Mina had slammed into, as well as the pavement where the speedster still lay unconscious. Aside from that, there were a few holes in a nearby fence where the ice spikes had gone through, and another hole in the pavement that was still smoking faintly. Izuku glanced sheepishly at that one. He had forgotten how potent Mina's acid could be when it wasn't properly controlled.

"What's going on here?" came a voice from behind them.

Standing behind them was a large and well muscled man wearing a white mask that looked very familiar to Mina, but for some reason she couldn't place it.

"The Battle Hero, Gunhead!" Izuku said, voice brimming with excitement at the prospect of meeting a new hero.

_Isn't he the hero Urarka interned with? _Mina thought.

"Always pleased to meet a fan" The large hero said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to asses the situation." He moved past Mina and Izuku, slipping past them with almost no effort, then paused when he saw the already defeated criminals.

"Running a little late there, aren't you sonny?" This came from an old woman, who had been sheltering in a nearby building with a man who appeared to be her husband. "These youngsters beat the villains before you even got here! Maybe they should be the heroes instead of you!" The wicked grin on her face offset the bite of her words.

Gunhead scratched at his head, not really sure what to make of the woman. Instead, he turned to Mina and Izuku.

"Apparently I owe you two some thanks, though I would appreciate you catching me up, so I know what to thank you for."

They gave him a quick run down of the events leading to their encounter with the villains, including their battle. As they talked, a few of the more vocal civilians chimed in with helpful details, or thier own color commentary.

"Well now!" Gunhead said "Sounds like I missed quite the confrontation! I'm impressed that you managed to deal with them so quickly! The two of you must be quite the team! Or even a little more?" Even with his face hidden, Mina could hear his eyebrows raise with the question.

The pair in question blushed slightly, their sudden awkwardness apparent to everyone watching. A few whistles came from the crowd, not helping the pair overcome their blushes.

Gunhead chuckled and patted them on their shoulders. "Sorry you two. It makes us old folks happy to see two young folks like yourselves who obviously care for each other. Though, if I may, it seems like the two of you were on your way to something?"

Mina's eyes widened as she remembered what had gotten them into their current situation. In the midst of battle, she had forgotten Izuku's haste. She wasn't sure exactly why he had wanted to get to his destination in time, but she was absolutely sure she wanted to find out.

Gunhead gave a thumbs up, and leaned in conspiratorially. "Tell you what, you can leave the cleanup for these guys with me. I'll be sure to mention that you two did the heavy lifting in my report. Now, you two run along and enjoy yourselves!" He mimed a massive wink that only sent Izuku deeper into a blushing mess.

"We'll do that, Mr. Gunhead!" Mina said. There might be a tinge of a blush in her cheeks, but she was still functioning under the gazes and comments of the onlookers.

She grabbed Izuku and started dragging him along, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth. They still had a bit of daylight left, so if they hurried, they might just make it to Izuku's mysterious destination.

"Be sure to give my greetings to Uraraka!" Gunhead called after them.

"Enjoy your date!" the onlookers said, almost in unison.

Mina sighed in exasperation, and Izuku blushed furiously.

* * *

As they came around the final corner, Izuku slid to a stop and breathed a sigh of relief. They had barely made it in time.

Before them, Dagobah beach was bathed in shadows, but the horizon was shining brilliantly with the last days of the sun.

He hadn't taken much note of it during his training but the view of the sunset here was truly spectacular.

He glanced at Mina, and was happy to see her stating in wonder, golden irises seeming to glow in the fading light. Her cheeks were still flushed from their earlier exertion as well as their match to get to the beach before sunset. She noticed his stare, and smiled at him. Izuku felt his heart skip a beat.

_She's beautiful_. It definitely wasn't the first time he'd thought it, but the thought resonated more strongly than ever in that moment.

"C'mon Midori!" Mina said, breaking away from him and heading towards the water.

It was too cold to go into the water, but Mina was more than happy to enjoy the sand between her toes. She kicked off her shoes and planted her feet deep in the sand, enjoying the lingering warmth. Beside her, Izuku did the same. They say like that, enjoying the moment as the sun finally slipped beneath the horizon, and shadows reigned.

Mina shifted, letting her head fall on Izuku's shoulder. "Thanks Midori" she said, quietly.

"I should be thanking you" he said. "You planned this after all. I was mostly just along for the ride."

"Some ride it was" Mina said, a trace of bitterness seeping into her voice.

A soft weight came down on her head, resting just behind her horns. She could feel Izuku's breath tickling her scalp, and sending a few strand down in front if her face.

"I enjoyed it." Izuku said softly.

"Which part? The terrible movie, the messed up dinner, or fighting criminals?" Mina chuckled ruefully.

"The part where I got to do them with you" Izuku said simply.

His words took a moment to register, but when they did, Mina flushed a brilliant lilac. Izuku was honest to a fault, and most of the time it was just cute. In this case though, he had sounded almost..._suave_.

Izuku wasn't keeping any calmer than Mina. His face had turned crimson, and he was pretty sure he could sell his services as a human space heater. He'd spoken without really thinking about what he was saying, and was now regretting his being so forward.

Silence reigned between them as they reached struggled with their emotions, until Mina finally broke it.

"I liked it too." She had thought back on the date, and realized she had been looking at it all wrong. She'd gotten caught up in wanting things to go right, to be just like the romances she'd watched that she had looked past what had been wonderful about the date. Laughing at bad cinematography with Izuku, people watching while they ate bad food, and… well the fighting hadn't exactly been ideal, but it hadn't ruined the experience either.

And now there was this. Sitting side by side in the slowly cooling sand. She snuggled closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

They spend a long time like that, enjoying having the entire beach to themselves. Finally, Izuku pulls his arm away.

"We should probably be heading back."

Mina knows he's right, but she really wishes he wasn't. She wants this moment to last forever.

"Your right" She says grudgingly. She dusted the sand off her feet, using Izuku as a backrest while she did so.

She stopped, and a grin spread across her face as a thought occurred to her. This moment might have to come to an end, but it certainly didn't have to be the last one.

She looked at Izuku as he stood, and held out a hand to help her up.

_Definitely not the last one._


	8. When Life Gives You Acid

After the absolute roller coaster of a day he's had, Izuku was more than ready to fall into bed and sleep for a week. He yawned loudly, and Mina chuckled beside him.

When she had grabbed onto his arm at the start of the date he had thought that that was as close as she could physically be. Mina had proven him delightfully wrong. After they had left Dagobah beach she had pressed herself firmly into his side, with nary an inch between them. The soft warmth seeping into him had left Izuku flushed the entire walk home, but he enjoyed it all the same.

They were well past the regular curfew, so the UA campus was bathed in shadows when they arrived. The only part that was well lit was the giant 'H' that formed the main building. As the universal symbol of the UA campus, a spotlight was always trained on the building at night, letting it serve as a beacon for most of Mustafu. And a great background for pictures.

"Smile!" Mina said, whipping out her phone and holding it out in front of them. The UA building was perfectly framed in the background, and Izuku had to wonder if she'd taken a picture here before.

He bent down slightly, making himself level with her, and put on his best smile. It wasn't hard. He'd been grinning the entire walk back.

Mina clicked the button several times, taking a series of rapid fire shots. She eyed each one carefully, rejecting several that Izuku couldn't see anything wrong with. Finally, she found one that she deemed acceptable and saved it.

"Perfect!' she announced with a wide smile. "Want me to send you a copy?"

He nodded, perhaps slightly more vigorously than was necessary. Even with the date all but finished, Mina was still finding ways to make his evening. He had a few pictures taken with his friends, mostly from Uraraka taking group selfies, and one class picture saved to his phone, but he always felt awkward asking other people to pose for pictures.

The myriad of candid hero shots he possessed were entirely different, of course. Those were business.

They had to pick their way somewhat carefully along the path to the dorm. Izuku nearly stumbled several times, as he was having a fairly difficult time paying attention to his feet. Mina took the lead, as it turned out she possessed above average night vision. Her black sclera were excellent at absorbing light, and when combined with her dancer's grace, it meant she had no trouble blazing a path across the darkened campus.

As the 1A dorm finally came into sight, Izuku saw the lights in the common room flick off, leaving the entire building dark. He checked his phone, and saw that it was 10:45, 15 minutes before they were supposed to be back by, but well past their class's usual turn in time. Bakugou had started the trend, but the class had almost unanimously decided to follow his lead of resting early.

"Looks like we missed everyone" Izuku said.

"Probably for the best" Mina said, smirking slightly. "I wouldn't put it past some of them to start teasing you about our date"

"You tease me all the time." He pointed out.

"Yeah, but I have an excuse. I don't think Kaminari finds you as cute as I do." She laughed as he suddenly turned bashful at her words. "C'mon. Let's get inside before Aizawa yells at us."

Mina was feeling quite refreshed. Sure her eyelids were drooping, and her feet were dragging slightly as she walked, but her heart was pretty much full to bursting. She honestly felt better than she had in weeks.

She turned her head so she could stare at Izuku better. He had a goofy grin on his face, and his cheeks were slightly flushed. His hair was just as messy as always, which was impressive given all that the evening had entailed. She clutched his arm a little tighter and sighed happily. It had been a long night, but she wouldn't have traded it for all the world.

* * *

Izuku paused as he opened the dorms front door. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but his instincts were telling him that they weren't alone.

He held up a hand to get Mina's attention, then whispered to her.

"Can you see anything?"

She looked puzzled at the question. "Not really. It's too dark for me. Why?"

"Not sure, but something feels off."

A faint dusting of sparkles danced across Mina's hands as she clenched her fists. The pair stepped forward as silently as they could into the dorm, eyes straining against the darkness.

They were nearly blinded when the common room lights flicked on once more. They blinked rapidly, trying to force their eyes to adjust, each standing ready to deflect any incoming blows.

Instead of an attack, however, they were greeted with the sight of nearly their entire class arrayed around the common room. It seemed that most of their friends had decided to ignore their usual bedtimes in favor of greeting the new couple, or teasing them in some cases.

"Let's have a big round of applause for the happy couple" Kaminari called, with a grin that could only be described as 'shit eating'. He knew he'd catch hell from Mina for it later, but Kaminari had never been one for long term planning.

More than a few of their classmates joined in the applause, a few out of genuine happiness for their classmates, and most just to participate in some friendly ribbing.

"Welcome back Midoriya, Ashido." Iida said warmly. "I trust you two had an enjoyable evening."

"We….I...uh…"

"Yep!" Mina cut Izuku off before he got two far into his stuttering fit. She'd worked hard to get him this far out of his shell tonight, and she wasn't going to let it go _quite_ yet.

"How was dinner?" Hagakure asked. "Was it all romantic and stuff?" Her posture indicated that she was leaning forward, sitting practically on the edge of her seat. Uraraka and, surprisingly, Yaoyorozu had also adopted similar positions, eager to hear the romantic details.

"Hmmmmmm" Mina hummed. She held up her hand, and began to tick the events of the night off one by one. "The restaurant lost our reservation, the park was closed, the movie was terrible, and we got ambushed by villians at one point."

Their eyes grew wider with each item. By the end, Yaoyorozu looked practically distraught at the misfortune, and Uraraka seemed like she was going to take a bat to the people who had interrupted her friend's date. Hagakure was gesticulating wildly, and presumably pouting.

"Buuuuuuuuut…" Mina said, holding up her last remaining finger. "We watched the sunset on the beach afterward. And that is all the story you get to hear." She grinned, enjoying their disappointed looks. She'd give them the full story later, of course. Just when there were less onlookers.

Kirishima wolf whistled at her comment, and a peal of laughter went through the class. Izuku blushed, more at the attention from everyone than the implications of the statement.

_It's funny _Mina thought, as Izuku shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot. _He's so timid about stuff like this, it's hard to remember how cool he can be _She thought back to the times she had seen him push past his anxiety, standing tall in the face of unwinnable odds. Even just tonight, he had taken down a powerful looking villain all by himself, and he'd still been thinking about her and their date afterward.

She grinned and grabbed hold of his arm again. Predictably, fresh commentary about her clinginess passed through their class. Even still, Mina found that she couldn't care less.

A loud bang echoed across the room, emanating from the stairwell.

"Will you all shut up?!" Bakugou shouted. "Some of us have training tomorrow!"

"Some of us actually passed our license exam!" Kirishima called back. He and Kaminari were some of the only people who could get away with mocking the explosive blond. Why exactly he tolerated the two of them, and practically no one else was the subject of fierce debate among their class.

"Fuck off" Bakugou shouted, slamming the door behind him once more.

"He makes a valid, if vulgar point." Iida pointed out. "Tomorrow may prove to be a long day, and we should prepare for it as best we can."

There was some grumbling from a few people about 'overbearing den mothers', but they all picked themselves up and began the trek up to their rooms.

Izuku started to join the crowd, but Mina held him back. He raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"One last thing" She said, pulling her phone from her pocket. "Mind if I take one last picture?" She gave him her best puppy dog eyes, just to seal the deal.

Izuku smiled good naturally, and leaned down once more. Mina pressed herself against his side, and raised the phone up to get them in frame.

Across the room, Uraraka and Hagakure paused outside the elevators, watching the two of them and smiling widely.

Izuku did his best to put all of his feelings into his smile. He wanted this picture to be special for her, so he tried to show how much fun he had with her, and how much he wanted to do something like this again. He tried to put how much he liked her into a single expression, and to his credit he was almost successful.

Then, just as she was about to press the button for the picture, Mina turned her head to the side and planted a kiss directly on his cheek.

The sound of the artificial shutter clicking was drowned out by Izuku's suddenly racing heartbeat. His cheeks flamed crimson, and his jaw dropped open as he tried and failed to form a coherent thought.

Mina pulled away, and admired the picture. She'd taken it fast enough that her action hadn't really registered on Izuku's face in the photo. He was still smiling broadly as she pressed her lips to his cheek.

It was absolutely perfect in Mina's opinion.

"Night Izuku!" she said, happily skipping past the boy, who was standing stock still and gaping like a fish. To her credit, she made it all the way back to her own room, shutting the door behind herself, before she slid down to the ground, put her hands to her lilac colored cheeks, and squealed softly.

* * *

"Deku?" Uraraka asked "You OK in there?"

It had been several minutes since Mina had gone upstairs, and Izuku had yet to move from where he stood in the middle of the common room. Hagakure had elected to follow her friend upstairs, hoping to get a few more of the details from today's date.

As Uraraka tapped his shoulder, Izuku slowly came out from his apparent trance.

"I….err….yeah. I'm good." A smile slowly blossomed across his face. "I'm really good."

He took a tentative step forward, then all but raced for the elevator. Just before the doors closed, Uraraka heard a high pitch squeal of happiness emerge from his lips.

She smiled and shook her head. "You two are gonna give me diabetes". She flicked off the lights, and started up the stairs. As she climbed, she resolved to take a less active role in their courtship from now on. After all, they had managed to do just fine on their own somehow.

* * *

Izuku woke up refreshed and ready for the coming day, which was rather surprising. After all, he'd spent a good chunk of the night tossing and turning while running over the events of the evening in his head. Each repetition had left him giddy, and so he'd continued thinking about the wonderful girl who had taken his heart for the rest of the night.

He stretched, working the kinks out of his spine, then moved to the bathroom. He held his hands over the sink and willed his Quirk to flow into his fingers. A small glob of acid formed along the tips and dripped into the basin.

_I guess we're still swapped then._ Izuku thought to himself. A part of him was secretly relieved. The Quirk swapping had been confusing, frustrating, and for some, existentially taxing. It had, however brought him closer to Mina, and for that he was very thankful.

He dressed quickly, then made his way down to the common room. Most of the class's early risers were already there. They weren't alone either. Sitting in the corner, wrapped firmly in his trademark sleeping bag, was Aizawa.

He glanced up as Izuku entered the room, and nodded slightly in the students direction, before returning his gaze to his laptop.

"Morning Deku!" Uraraka called.

"Good morning." He said, stepping over to where she sat, working her way through a light breakfast. Iida sat next to her, working on an assignment Izuku was fairly certain wasn't due for another two weeks, and Hagakure sat across from them, idly tapping at her phone. That, or one of their phones had become sentient and started floating. It definitely wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen in Izuku's life

"Are we waiting for something?" he ask, slightly confused. Usually Iida would be halfway through his morning run at this point, and Aizawa seemed to make a point of spending as little time in the dorms as possible.

"We're waiting for you all to get your Quirks back." Aizawa said. His eyes were still firmly glued to his laptop, though he was apparently following the conversation perfectly well. "The principal was concerned there could be side effects, so I'm here to keep an eye on you while we wait. Try and keep the noise to a minimum. I do have some work to do." With that, he snuggled deeper in his sleeping bag, and seemed to tune them out completely.

"Well that sucks" Kaminari said from behind Izuku. He, Kirishima, Tokoyami, and Mineta had come down while Aizawa had been speaking. "We're confined to the dorm, and we have watcher? There goes all the fun for today"

A few murmurs of agreement followed his statement, and Aizawa glanced away from his work to glare at them. They quieted down, but only a little. At this point, they were used to their teacher's frequent glares.

"Not like there's much to do around here, even without a teacher" Jirou said, poking her head out of the communal kitchen.

"What about a sexy pillow fight!" Mineta cried, practically salivating at the thought. "We can grab some pillows, and bet on who we-"

Like something out of a horror movie, a long pink tendril whipped around the corner and wrapped itself around Mineta. He had just enough time to shout in surprise before it pulled him out of view. Moments later, a high, piercing scream echoed through the room, which cut off abruptly a moment after.

Tsuyu stepped out from where Mineta had disappeared, an expression of froggy innocence plastered across her face. "Any other ideas for what to do?" She asked politely.

A rapid barrage of ideas followed. A class study session, an arm wrestling tournament, a bake off, a board game tournament, and a "world's worst joke" competition were among the most popular.

Izuku was just about to put his own idea out, figuring out who the class' favorite hero was (aside from All Might, of course), when something warm and pink crashed into his side. Mina might have been the last member of the class to wake, but she made up for her late arrival with enthusiasm.

"Morning Izuku!" she said, arms wrapped around his shoulders. He went stiff in her grip, still very unused to hearing anyone besides his mother use his first name, particularly with as much affection as she had.

"Morning guys!" Mina called, freeing one hand to wave at the rest of the class, most of whom were now staring at the couple who had spontaneously fused at the waist. "What are we talking about?"

"Trying to figure out what we're gonna do today." Kaminari replied. He hooked a finger at Aizawa. "We have a monitor, so my plans are out."

"And what exactly were your plans?" Jirou asked.

He opened his mouth to respond but, in a rare fit of common sense, decided to change the subject. "Not important. What _is_ important is settling the matter. Mina, any thoughts before we pick between arm wrestling and study session?"

Iida looked very pleased that his suggestion was being seriously considered. Preoccupied as he was with mentally selecting the textbooks they would need, he missed the eye rolls that came from several members of the class. Arm wrestling may not have been their first choice of activity, but they would participate happily before they devoted a free Saturday to more schoolwork.

Thankfully for them, though not for their grades, Mina piped up with her suggestion.

"Has anyone suggested a movie marathon?" She asked.

There was a pause. A few people had thought about it, but had difficulty picturing their class coming to a consensus on genre.

"It's not a bad idea" Kaminari said, "But I didn't bring any of my movie collection with me. Anyone think to bring theirs?"

"I've got some horror movies" Mina said cheerfully. Koda and Jirou whimpered softly at the statement.

"I-I have a couple of hero documentaries." Izuku chimed in. "They're mostly about All Might though…"

Kaminari started to respond, but stopped when a phone was tossed in his direction. It bounced from hand to hand as he struggled to grab it, thankfully managing to snag a grip after a few moments.

The class turned to stare at the tosser. No one was quite sure how Aizawa had managed to get that much distance on a throw without removing his arms from the sleeping bag.

"The principal is on speed dial 2." He said, voice still deadpan as usual. "He figured you might get bored, so if you guys need movies, the school can lend you some. Just keep it to a reasonable volume. And if you make popcorn, bring me a share." His gaze returned to his computer.

The fight over what to watch was quick, brutal, and decisive. In the end, they picked a well known comedy movie, a classic Disney story, and an equally classic and beloved romance.

The fact that the last one had been suggested by Bakugou had come as a great surprise. His furious glare at the laughter that followed was even less effective at silencing them than Aizawa's had been. No one, however, even considered removing it from the line up. Teasing the explosive boy was good fun, and a class tradition at this point. Pissing him off, on the other hand, was bad for your health.

* * *

"That was the manliest thing I've ever seen" Kirishima said, tears glistening on his cheeks. He was not the only one crying, but he was one of the few showing it openly.

On the screen, the credits rolled for the last movie of their brief marathon as the main couple walked hand in hand into the sunset. The resolution had been very moving, with both characters professing their willingness to love each other forever, despite their opposing Quirks and feuding families. It was easy to see why it had become such a classic film.

"Somehow I think we have very different definitions of manliness" Jirou said. Her eyes were dry, though a perceptive observer might have noticed that her voice was trembling slightly with emotion as she spoke.

As if seeking to distract from the breakdown of her usual stoic demeanor, she reached over and knocked Kaminari on the head, waking him from his slumber. The blond had fallen asleep less than ten minutes after the movie had begun and, much to the class' annoyance, had proceeded to snore loudly at a few crucial scenes. Waking him had proved a short term solution until Tokoyami had buried him in pillows to muffle the snores.

"Wha happened?" Kaminari asked, speech slurred from his deep slumber. His hair had become extremely tousled while he slept, but the lightning bolt pattern had somehow remained perfectly intact.

"You missed the movie, you dolt" Jirou said

"Ehhh." Kaminari shrugged. "No big loss. Can't say I'm much of a fan of chick flicks."

"Get out of here with your shitty taste." Bakugou said. He had curled up in a chair at the edge of the room with a textbook before the movie marathon had started, despite his assertions from the previous night about ditching them to go train. The textbook was still perched on his lap, unopened.

"I've gotta admit, I'm kinda surprised you like these kind of movies Bakugou" Kirishima said. The tears had been wiped away, though he still sounded quite emotional. "I always thought you'd be more of a fan of action movies."

"So just because I like fighting, I can't have good taste? Fuck that." He finally cracked the textbook. "Sometimes you need something to relax with."

"I think it's sweet that he has a romantic side" Tsuyu said, pointedly ignoring Bakugou giving her the finger in return.

"I still think it's lame" Kaminari said.

"That!" Hagakure said, leaping up to stand in front of the TV, "Is because you haven't seen a true scene of romance. Two lovers, breathlessly gazing into each other's eyes. It's quite the experience, let me tell you. Sooooooo…"

Izuku may not have been able to see her gaze, but he could feel the weight as it bore down upon him.

"I say we get a couple of our classmates to reenact the movie for us." Her tone betrayed the grin that had spread across her face.

Izuku did his best to blend in to the couch cushions.

Kaminari may have been sleepy, but he was a prankster at heart. He could tell when someone was setting up a scenario, and he was more than willing to play along.

"You know, I've always been a 'visual' learner. Maybe an example would be good for me. Got some people in mind, Hagakure?" He didn't have the advantage of invisibility. The stare he leveled at the couple was very obvious with its implications.

Mina opened her mouth to object. She didn't mind the attention too much, but Izuku was obviously melting under it. The poor boy was sweating bullets and was glowing a bright, cherry red.

She was cut off by a rising chant of "Re-en-act! Re-en-act!" lead by Kaminari and Hagakure. A few of the more playful members of their class had joined in, caught up in the moment.

Izuku tried to object as well, but found his tongue unwilling to comply. The blood rushing to his head was making it very hard to think. He fanned his face, trying to calm his nerves at the same time. He knew his classmates wouldn't force him to do anything he found truly terrifying, Iida and Uraraka would intervene before that point.

He froze as he saw something on his hand. A single green spark was running down his fingers, dancing between drops of sweat as it moved down the digits. Thinking fast, he did a mental inventory. He was feeling flushed from embarrassment, yes, but the heat was throughout his entire body. Sweat ran down his limbs and torso, and now that he was paying attention, he could feel the telltale presence of more sparks along his limbs.

His eyes widened as he realized what was happening. His Quirk was coming back sooner than they had expected.

"Shit!" he swore loudly, pulling nearly every eye in the room to him. Izuku didn't swear, even when staring down the most powerful of villains, so hearing something like that coming out of his mouth was shocking to them.

Their shock multiplied when they saw the sparks on his limbs, and the meaning registered with them.

Aizawa leapt up and out of his sleeping bag in one swift motion. His laptop fell to the side, the "Top 100 cutest cats in the world" video he had been watching instead of working completely ignored.

He locked his gaze on Izuku, flaring his Quirk. Officially, he was there to keep an eye on the whole class, but in reality it was Izuku the school was most concerned with. One For All had the potential to be terrifyingly destructive if not controlled, to both its user and school property. The boy had done remarkably well learning to control it in the short time he'd possessed the Quirk, but in these unusual circumstances, Nedzu had wanted to be extra certain that there would be no damage, or risk to the students.

The sparks died, and Izuku felt most of the warmth dissipate as his Quirk was suppressed by his teacher's. He stood stock still, not wanting to risk breaking Aizawa's sightline in any way.

A moment of silence overtook the room. Many of the students stared at their hands, winding what was about to happen.

Mina was watching Izuku, her stomach having fallen past her feet when he had begun to spark. Part of her wanted to jump up and comfort him, but a more rational part of her told her to sit still and to be careful.

It was overwhelmed a moment later when she heard a hissing from beneath her, and realized she was leaking acid from her feet, and had burned a number of holes in her shoes. She let loose a stream of colorful language, much of which had been picked up from Bakugou's foul mouth, and dashed outside. Her Quirk might not be as destructive as Izuku's, but her family had learned long ago that acid damage was very hard to get out of carpets, and insurance was very picky about paying for it.

She burst through the doors, and threw herself on the grass out front. The landscapers would probably hate her for it, but it was the furthest thing from her mind at that point.

She was jointed a few moments later by Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and Aoyama, who's Quirks could also prove damaging to the dorm if allowed to run loose.

What followed next was pure, unadulterated pandemonium.

When their Quirks had swapped originally, most of them had struggled even to activate the new abilities. The only reason Izuku had been able to activate Acid so quickly was due to his previous experience dealing with an unfamiliar Quirk. Their bodies had been unused to the new powers they possessed, and not truly able to activate them. Their bodies had had no way to really express their newfound powers.

This time, they didn't have that limitation. Their Quirks had returned suddenly, and their bodies were reacting to the return with gusto. Their Quirks were like a muscle in their body, one which they had been unable to flex for a week.

Mina did her best to stay out of the main area of chaos. Tokoyami's dark shadow was rampaging, kept in check only by Bakugou's explosions. They had been lucky their Quirks returned in the daytime, so it hadn't been too bad. Kaminari was emitting random bursts of electricity, grinning like a loon the entire time. Yaoyorozu was surrounded by an assortment of random objects, with more spitting out of her skin every moment. Koda looked like a princess out of the Disney movie they had just watched, covered from head to toe in various bids who were singing at him in a great cacophony. Poor Uraraka was hanging onto the edge of the dorm for dear life, and looking more than a little green as she levitated.

Mina herself sat in the center of a quickly growing pool of acid, which hissed and spat as it encountered the grass. Thankfully, the dirt beneath her seemed to be resistant to whatever acid her body was producing, so her seat was stable. She couldn't feel the tell tale prickle of acid overwhelming her skin's natural resistance either, which meant whatever she was producing wasn't too horribly acidic.

As she sat there, she suddenly felt very small. Her mind kept replaying the times from her childhood when she had had to sit in the bathtub for what had felt like forever at the time as her skin seeped acid. She remembered feeling helpless, not really understand what was happening at the time, while her mother tried to gently reassure her.

_Not anymore. _Mina thought to herself. _I'm not a helpless little kid anymore. I am a Hero!_

She brought every ounce of her willpower to bear on her Quirk, beating it into submission with her mind. It seemed to shriek as she fought it, and everything around her seemed to fall away into a fog. It was slow, so very slow, almost like trying to force a rusty faucet closed. Mina kept going though, pushing with everything she had. She might not be the most book smart member of the class, or the most tactical mind, but Mina had willpower to spare.

* * *

Izuku watched from the doorway of the dormitory, staying as still as he could. Aizawa was doing his best to suppress One for All, but after USJ his time limit wasn't enough for long term suppression. Izuku could feel every time his teacher blinked, the strength surging through his limbs. The door frame now sported several dents from where his fingers had dug into the metal.

Staying where he was was practically tearing him apart. Every instinct in his body was screaming at him to move, to help his classmates. The rational part of him knew, however, that One for All going haywire would only be a detriment to everyone.

So he stood and watched as his classmates dealt with something they were woefully unprepared for by themselves.

He watched as Mina struggled and willed her Quirk into submission, her face screwed up in concentration.

When Aizawa pauses to drop his eyes the next time, the doorframe in Izuku's hands bent like playdoh

* * *

It was the most difficult thing Mina had ever done, but after long minutes of struggle she brought her Quirk back under her control once more.

She fell back with a sigh of relief. She could still feel it's warmth buried inside her, ready to be called if she needed it, but for now it was dormant.

She flopped onto something soft, and vaguely warm. As she turned her head, she realized it was her acid. Apparently when she had been struggling to control her Quirk, she had accidentally changed the viscosity. Beneath her, a soft and comfy pillow of viscous material slowly conformed to her body.

_You know, _Mina thought to herself _If the whole 'Hero' thing doesn't work out, I could make a fortune in the pillow business. _The acid pillow hissed as an unfortunate insect came in for a landing. _Hmmmmm. Maybe with a really tough pillow case…_

She lost her train of thought as a shadow crossed her face. She opened her eyes to see Izuku staring down at her, concern written plainly on his face.

"Are you ok?"

She grinned tiredly. "Never better"

She rolled off of the acid pillow, thankful that her clothes had survived the experience. She'd have to remember to thank the support course for the acid resistant fabric they had given her.

She hadn't been the first to get her Quirk under control. Both Izuku and Tokoyami were used to having a Quirk that didn't do quite what they wanted it to. Others were still struggling, but the pervious chaos was being brought to heel. WIth Izuku doing fine, Aizawa was free to suppress people's powers while they got a handle on it. Shoji, Tsuyu, Bakugou, and Todoroki were all pitching in to keep the damage to a minimum as well.

Mina and Izuku stood past the main group of students. Most had kept a healthy distance from Mina and her uncontrollable acid. Even in chaos, most of them had maintained a semi-level head due to a combination of extensive training and practice dealing with extreme situations.

They stood there for a long moment, neither one quite sure what they should do in this scenario. They shuffled awkwardly, minds racing as they tried to come up with something to say to break the stillness between them.

"So…. Guess we're not Quirk buddies anymore, huh?" Mina said.

Izuku smiled. "Our powers might not be swapped, but I think we're still Quirk buddies. I learned a lot from having Acid this past week."

"Me too!" Mina said brightly. "It was fun being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and all that. I'm still disappointed in the name though. 'Super-Power' is pretty lame, you have to admit."

_She's not entirely wrong_ Izuku thought as he winced slightly. He really did hate lying about his Quirk. He resolved himself to have a chat with All Might about the subject. Maybe it was time for his friends (and more than friends) to learn the real secret of his Quirk.

"I'm...not the best with naming things." he said in response.

She laughed at that. He certainly possessed a talent for understatement.

"You really aren't. I, however, am an expert at nicknames, so you're in good hands Izu-chan."

He spluttered at the nickname. "I…..that's….."

She grinned at his reaction. He was very cute when he got flustered. "Not a fan of your new nickname?"

"No! I just… it kinda caught me by surprise is all."

Mina tilted her head to the side, taking him in as best she could. "Hmmmmm. I'll come up with something better later. For now though….is it alright if I call you my boyfriend?" Her serene face betrayed none of the nerves she felt, though she was absolutely sure Izuku could hear her heart, which was currently imitating a bass drum.

He flushed at her words, but didn't shy away as much as she might have expected him to. Instead, his eyes met hers, and he smiled softly.

"Only if I get to call you my girlfriend too."

Mina felt her heart swell and, without thinking, she hurled herself at him. He caught her out of reflex, and pulled her close.

It was at that moment that they both remembered that Mina was still covered in acid.

His clothes smoked as they began to dissolve at the points of contact, but no sound came from his mouth. Mina glanced down, double checking that they were indeed touching. She could see small rivulets of acid running down his arms, but that was it. No blood. No shouts of pain.

She looked back up to his face, and saw an equal amount of surprise to what she was feeling.

"Guess I...uh… kept the acid resistance." He said, more than a little taken aback. He recovered quickly though. "Since it was a physical alteration, it might even be permanent. You know, that'll probably come in handy. If it does persist, we could fight together without you having to worry about me getting in the crossfire…"

Mina could only shake her head as he devolved into one of his frequent muttering sessions. "You're such a nerd!" She said, poking him lightly on the cheek to bring him back to the present.

He shook his head, clearing away the training thoughts that had popped into his head.

"Yeah..." He said sheepishly. "But, I guess I'm your nerd now." With that, he planted a soft, quick kiss on her cheek.

Mina's cheeks flushed a brilliant lilac. Izuku was so very awkward and self conscious most of the time, it was easy to forget that he had a braver, more confident side buried deep underneath his anxiety. It usually only came out during Hero work, but every so often…

"S'not fair." She mumbled.

"Hmmm?"

"I said it's not fair when you act all cool like that. I'm supposed to be the one teasing you"

Izuku laughed at that, and Mina joined him a second later, foreheads pressed close together.

A moment later, a loud whistle broke them out of the little world they had been inhabiting. Kirishima stood a few feet away, fingers still in his mouth, an enormous smile visible through them. Behind him, the rest of the class (including Aizawa and All Might) were watching the couple. Most were grinning, although Bakugou looked disgusted and Mineta looked extremely jealous.

"You were right Hagakure" Kaminari said, grinning almost literally ear to ear. "That was something to watch."

The class laughed as the new couple blushed furiously and disentangled themselves. They did, however, continue to hold hands long after they returned to the dorm. Their time at UA had been, and always would be, hectic and strange beyond belief. Instead of fighting it, Izuku and Mina decided to embrace it. Their lives may have been complicated, but they had a great many friends to share it with, and now they had something more as well.

And that, well, that was just lovely.


End file.
